China's Singles' Day sales hit 1.5 bln USD in first 3 minutes

Source: Xinhua| 2017-11-11 17:10:50|Editor: Mengjie
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SHANGHAI, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- China's Singles' Day sales on TMall hit 10 billion yuan (about 1.5 billion U.S. dollars) at just three minutes past midnight on Saturday.

In 2016, the volume was achieved in six minutes and 58 seconds, according to Alibaba, owner of TMall.

November 11 has been celebrated as China's Single's Day since the 1990s. The date was chosen because 11-11 resembles four "bare sticks," a Chinese term for bachelor. Alibaba introduced the Single's Day shopping event in 2009.

As of 1 a.m. Saturday, transactions were made in 201 countries and regions, with Japan, the United States, Australia, Germany and the Republic of Korea being the top five sources of imports.

In 2016, Alibaba's Singles' Day sales totalled 120 billion yuan (about 18 billion U.S. dollars).

"This year, we have over one million retailers worldwide who registered both online and offline stores; we have targeted 52 core commercial areas globally and we ran 30,000 service centers in rural areas of China to provide quality products to consumers there," said Zhang Yong, CEO of Alibaba.

The industry expansion involves not only retailers, consumers and logistics but also industrial engineers, designers, farmers and production managers, he said.

The new consumption trend and technological revolution are changing the lives of every one on the globe, he added.

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