We're three-quarters of the way through Singles' Day 2014, and all records have officially been crushed.
By 1:30pm today, more than RMB36 billion had been exchanged via Alibaba services (mainly Taobao and TMall) passing last year's record with more than 10 hours worth of binge shopping still to go.
Sales took off at midnight, when eager shoppers had filled their carts and hovered above the "Purchase" button. These rapid-fire-buyers were responsible for more than RMB6 billion in sales in the first eighteen freaking minutes of the day. After the first hour had passed, Alibaba had processed RMB12 billion.
Rough estimates say that more than 170 million packages have been bought and will soon be shuffling about the country from supply depot, to 18-wheeler to kuaidi moped.
Xiaomi, the country's most popular phone maker, sold 720,000 phones in 12 hours, passing the RMB1 billion point in earnings (last year they made about RMB550 million). TechInAsia notes that nearly half of the day's early sales were done via Alibaba's mobile apps, meaning customers were making purchases with phones or tablets.
While Jack Ma is diving into his pool of hundred-yuan bills, however, retailers are freaking out. According to Quartz, Singles' Day is "expensive and anxiety-ridden," and is such a massive part of the yearly shopping calendar that some vendors stake 15% of their annual profits on 11/11 alone. Couple that with the fact that the several weeks before November 11 are some of the slowest in the year (after all, who would buy something that's about to go on sale?) and the pressure is ratcheted up.
Go out, our precious readers, and cash in on what remains of this glorious day! Assuming you don't also run a Taobao shop, this is a win-win. (If you do own a Taobao shop, you likely don't have the time to be reading this.)
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