Jack Ma took Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. on the road to Beijing in search of a new Singles’ Day sales record, and it worked.
Transactions on this year’s event passed 57.1 billion yuan ($9 billion) before midday, eclipsing the 2014 mark with another 12 hours still to go.
China’s biggest e-commerce emporium moved the base for its annual shopathon to the former Olympic aquatics center in the capital as Ma tries to reverse the company’s $55 billion plunge in market value. Shifting from its Hangzhou home to the heart of Chinese power shows Alibaba’s ambitions to maintain growth, penetrate the northern region where rival JD.com Inc. is based and answer the government’s call for “national champions” in technology.