Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba’s Singles Day is known for being the world’s biggest online shopping extravaganza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But this year it has been a more toned down affair as Beijing cracks down on businesses and economic growth slows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sales for the 11-day event rose at their slowest rate since it was launched in 2009, up 8.5% on last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, customer spending still hit a fresh record high of 540.3bn yuan ($84.5bn; \u00a363.2bn).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This year marks the first time that sales for Alibaba’s Singles Day, which the company refers to as the “11.11 Global Shopping Festival “, failed to achieve double digit year-on-year growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It’s probably not that great if you consider the market is expected to grow at almost 12%,” Rui Ma from the Tech Buzz China website told the BBC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“They’ve already tapped out this holiday to its extreme. This is already a big number so its hard to show growth,” she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It comes against the backdrop of the Chinese government’s rapid moves in recent months to impose tough new rules on the country’s internet giants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After years of limited oversight by Beijing, officials have been enforcing regulations to ensure that the technology industry competes fairly and contributes more to society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alibaba found itself in the spotlight during the crackdown as it paid a record $2.8bn fine after a probe determined it had abused its market position for years. The company also said it would change the way it conducted its business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A different type of event
Shen Lu from technology website Protocol told the BBC that this year’s Singles Day was about improving the company’s image: “Alibaba is trying to present themselves to be a tech company with social responsibility.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“They’re showing they’re complying with regulations and fitting into the general political atmosphere,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This approach brought a more socially conscious emphasis to the event than previous years with eco-friendly products and campaigns to raise money for good causes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, viewers of a three-hour livestream were encouraged to click “like” and help raise money for an elephant reserve in China’s rural southwest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ms Shen also suggested that there are signs that shoppers are looking for new ways to buy online: “It’s now been 12 years since Alibaba invented the Singles Day shopping event.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It was such a hype years ago but it’s no longer exciting for shoppers in China,” she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of those new approaches is live-streaming shopping, which consultancy McKinsey has predicted is the future of online sales in China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last month, two of China’s most famous celebrity online sellers reportedly raked in $3bn in just 12 hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slowing growth<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Consumers may also be wary of making unnecessary purchases as China’s economic recovery shows signs of losing steam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to official figures, the world’s second largest economy grew by 4.9% in the July to September quarter from a year earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That was the slowest pace of expansion in a year and worse than analysts had predicted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It comes as power shortages, new outbreaks of Covid-19 and concerns about the country’s property market weigh on the economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba’s Singles Day is known for being the world’s biggest online shopping extravaganza. But this year it has been a more toned down affair as Beijing cracks down on businesses and economic growth slows. Sales for the 11-day event rose at their slowest rate since it was launched in 2009, up 8.5% […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n