Xi Jinping probably woke up Tuesday morning expecting that his country’s Internet users would be buzzing about the 21 world leaders he’s hosting in Beijing for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, and how he made them all dress up like they were attending a Star Trek convention. But even though China’s social media platforms were indeed unusually busy this morning, the frenzy had nothing to do with APEC, Vulcan fashion, Xi, or any of his distinguished guests.
According to the trending topic list at Sina Weibo, the No. 1 subject at 9 a.m. today was Singles Day, a recently manufactured holiday that’s become, by sales, the world’s biggest shopping extravaganza, surpassing even the combined sales of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The No. 2 item on the list was Alibaba, the e-commerce giant that's transformed Singles Day into the behemoth it is now, followed by the company’s online payment service Alipay. Fourth and fifth on the list were two different ways of saying “sales turnover.”
The frenzy was indeed reflected in sales over the course of the day. Last year, Alibaba racked up $5.75 billion during the one-day jamboree. By 1:30 p.m. today, the company had already blown past that mark on its way to a new record.
Read Full Article HERE
