Monday 9 November 2015

How Singles Day eclipsed Black Friday and Cyber Monday

According to The Telegraph, an annual celebration known in China as “bare sticks holiday” – see appearance of date: 11.11 – Singles Day began as an anti-Valentine’s Day (1 child policy = male surplus) in the 1990s when students at Nanjing University started celebrating their single status, online.

The chart says it all, don’t you think?

                                                                                               Chart: Highcharts.com via The Telegraph

Driven by Alibaba, in the 24 hours of Singles Day last year, and in spite of economic re-sets, Chinese consumers spent a record-breaking 57.1bn yuan (£5.86bn, or almost $9bn) across Alibaba’s platforms, more than double what American consumers spent online across the 48 combined hours of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Opportunities for suppliers?
  • A no-brainer for global brands
  • Scope for innovative niche brands, providing you can meet the demand..
  • Deep down, an incentive to seek out emerging trends and learn how to engage imaginatively, before the event become as obvious as Singles Day…

Worried about limited ‘singles potential’ following the recent abandonment of 1-child policy?  No worry, China will take a generation to begin to recover from that particular interference in the natural order, at least…


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