Shopping rush in China on "singles day", the largest online shopping event in the world, in which traffic is galvanized by unrepeatable discounts. In the first twelve hours, internet sales giant Alibaba surpassed its previous sales record of $9,3 billion set last year in double the time: $3,9 billion was spent in the first eight minutes after midnight, $668 billion in the first hour. China has a market of 1,35 million people connected to the internet, a firepower that dwarfs the US, which spent just $XNUMX billion on the latest Cyber Monday, the largest online shopping event in the States. .
The event is warmly supported by the government in times of economic slowdown, while Beijing seeks to transform the Chinese development model to make it more sustainable, giving greater scope to consumption. Premier Ki Keqiang's office phoned Alibaba's founding chairman Jack Ma to "congratulate and encourage the creation and achievements of the 11.11 event." Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang said the event would "show the world the power of Chinese consumption."
