Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) set a new sales record for the annual Singles Day shopping event, a feat that was overshadowed by a near 10% stock plunge caused by proposed new Chinese antitrust regulation.
Singles Day is typically a 24-hour shopping event in China that sees huge discounts across millions of products on e-commerce platforms run by Alibaba, JD.com (NASDAQ:JD) and other players. It generates more sales than Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the U.S. combined.
But this year, retailers JD.com and Alibaba have extended the shopping event. It has run from Nov. 1 and will end at midnight on Thursday.
Alibaba said gross merchandise value (GMV), a figure that shows the total value of orders across Alibaba’s shopping platforms, surpassed 372.3 billion yuan ($56.42 billion) as of 12:30 a.m. Beijing time on Wednesday. That is the total since the shopping event kicked off on Nov. 1. That is more than the 268.4 billion yuan of GMV Alibaba recorded last year in a 24-hour period on Singles Day.
JD.com, Alibaba’s biggest rival, said transaction volume on its platform was 200 billion yuan as of 12:09 a.m. Beijing time on Wednesday. Again, that is a total from Nov. 1.
On Tuesday, Alibaba’s U.S.-listed shares closed down over 8% at $266.54, wiping off over $60 billion of value in a day. The Chinese technology giant’s Hong Kong-listed stock shed 9.8% to close at 248.40 Hong Kong dollars on Wednesday.
JD.com’s U.S. shares closed over 5% lower on Tuesday, while its Hong Kong stock fell 9.2% to close at 300 Hong Kong dollars on Wednesday.
BABA shares gained 18 cents to $266.72 Wednesday, while those for JD jumped $1.59, or 2%, to $81,67.
Tech Insider
