Every year, Chinese shoppers splash serious amounts of cash to mark Singles' Day, a festival where people have the chance to celebrate their pride in being single. The event has gained more and more momentum in recent years and yesterday smashed records once again. Alibaba, China's largest e-commerce company, saw its gross merchandise volume (dollar value of total transactions) reach $30.8 billion despite the company recording its lowest ever Singles' Day growth rate, according to Techcrunch.
Alibaba announced on Twitter that 2018 transactions had beaten 2017's total of $25 billion after just 15 hours and 49 minutes yesterday. By the end of the shopping spree, the annual growth rate had declined to 27% compared with 36% in 2017. That slowdown is more than likely due to slowing economic growth in China as well as increased competition from other online retailers. Despite that slight loss of momentum, Singles' Day is still a gargantuan event in comparison with Cyber Monday and Black Friday in the United States. The following infographic compares Alibaba's GMV with total U.S. e-commerce sales on Cyber Monday and Black Friday in 2017. China's annual online shopping extravaganza is nearly three times as big as Thanksgiving weekend.
*Click below to enlarge (charted by Statista)
