Alibaba has generated a 213.5 billion yuan (27 billion euro) turnover during the 11.11 Global Shopping Festival on 11 November. 180,000 brands took part in this year’s sales festival in honour of Singles’ Day.
One billion after one minute
The first billion euros had already been realised after less than two minutes: this number includes all of the sales that were paid through AliPay, Alibaba’s own digital payment system. The company is breaking its own records: last year the company ‘only’ sold 168.2 billion yuan worth of products during the shopping festival. Over 180,000 brands were involved now, last year there were ‘only’ 140,000. During the first edition in 2009, only 27 companies took part.
The 11.11 Global Shopping Festival came with a spectacular event with Miranda Kerr and Mariah Carey. Cirque du Soleil got to present a show during the annual countdown gala, which was broadcast through two Chinese TV stations as well as the online streaming platform Youku (property of Alibaba, of course), in true ‘omnichannel’ fashion.
Roland Palmer, managing director of Alibaba Benelux, is “incredibly happy we got to celebrate the tenth edition of 11.11 Singles Day Global Shopping Festival.” He is especially very proud of “the enormous growth of the role played by European and Benelux-based brands during the event, including several participating brands from Belgium this year, such as Ice-Watch and Neuhaus.”
