Zhang Qian

    zhqcindy@163.com

    THE Singles’ Day online shopping spree on Alibaba began midnight yesterday and online sales hit 1 billion yuan (US$157.1 million) in 72 seconds and 10 billion yuan in 12 minutes, setting new records for China’s e-commerce giant.

    According to a post on the official Weibo of Tmall.com, the online shopping platform broke the 2014 Singles’ Day record of 57.1 billion yuan in less than 12 hours this year, with total sales at 57 billion yuan by 12 p.m. yesterday. Around 71 percent of sales were conducted via smartphones or tablets.

    Figures were not available from other e-commerce platforms like JD.com, Suning and Amazon.

    Alibaba spent big on a promotional party, hosted by Hunan TV and organized by famous Chinese director Feng Xiaogang on Tuesday night at the National Aquatic Center in Beijing. In addition to super stars like Eason Chan, Li Ronghao and singing group TFboys, Alibaba also invited James Bond actor Daniel Craig to the event. Alibaba chairman Jack Ma also appeared at the extravaganza.

    American actor Kevin Spacey, who plays Francis Underwood in the well-known TV drama “House of Cards,” appeared in a TMall.com advertisement.

    Premier Li Keqiang on Tuesday asked his staff members to call Ma to congratulate Alibaba on its achievements.

    Statistics show that online shoppers in Guangdong Province have contributed the most to Alibaba’s coffers during this year’s Singles’ Day, followed by Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shanghai and Beijing, according to the Southern Metropolis Daily. Guangdong consumers bought 6.6 billion yuan worth of merchandise through Alibaba’s e-commerce sites by 6:30 p.m. yesterday.

    Alibaba’s promotion this year also targeted consumers in other parts of the world. Overseas online sales figures were not available at press time.

    A Shenzhen resident surnamed Lin told the Shenzhen Daily that she asked for a one-day leave in order to shop online. She said she was worried the number of people shopping online would slow down the Internet and that she liked to shop online to save time.

    But another young woman, Rachel Yang, said she was unmoved by the shopping frenzy and bought nothing on Singles’ Day.

    “There’s nothing I need to buy for now, so I don’t want to waste my time browsing through websites all day,” said Yang.

    Yang said she was worried about the quality of some of the products being sold at extremely low prices.

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