Alibaba Group opted not to disclose the final sales tally of its annual Singles Day shopping festival for the first time since it started the event in 2009, saying only that results were in line with last year. Rival JD.com also did disclose GMV or sales growth, but said that Apple sold over 1 billion yuan ($140 million) worth of products in the first minute of the event’s final sales period on Thursday evening.
Last year’s 8.5% rise in gross merchandise value (GMV) for Alibaba’s platforms had been its lowest yet, following a 26% jump in 2020. Before 2020, the festival was a one-day event.
Other indicators showed that Chinese consumers clutched their wallets tight this year and continued seeking relatively economical home brands over pricier expensive labels, as consumer sentiment has been hit by stringent COVID-19 curbs and a sharply slowing economy.
Citi analysts said this week they were conservatively forecasting Alibaba’s GMV for the event to range from 545 billion yuan to 560 billion yuan ($75 billion to $77 billion), with growth of 0.9% to 3.6%.
The e-commerce giant has for over a year toned down hype around the event as Chinese President Xi Jinping increasingly emphasises “common prosperity” – a push that seeks to eliminate growing wealth inequities and clamp down on what the Communist Party sees as excessive behavior.
MacDailyNews Take: “Excessive behavior.”
As Robert Kennedy said:
The tyranny of Communism is as old as the Pharaohs and the Pyramids – that the State stands above all men and their individual aspirations.
“Communism doesn’t work because people like to own stuff.” — Frank Zappa
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