Alibaba’s Taobao Live reaches sales of US$280 million in opening 90 minutes of China’s midyear shopping festival

• Sales on Taobao Live hit 2 billion yuan (US$280 million) just 90 minutes after the midyear shopping festival officially launched at midnight on June 1
• Dong Mingzhu, the ‘home appliances queen’, sold 310 million yuan worth of goods in a three-hour live streaming event on short video platform Kuaishou last month