“Yesterday night, I was browsing past 11 p.m.
Many of my friends around me were staying up
till 2 a.m. to buy stuff,” said Zhu Yirun, a graduate
student in Beijing.
Alibaba said sales by merchants on its platforms
had risen to 255.2 billion yuan ($36.5 billion)
by 11 p.m. after passing last year’s full-day
total of $30.8 billion before 6 p.m. JD.com
reported sales of 179.4 billion yuan ($25.6 billion)
by mid-afternoon.
Alibaba kicked off the event Sunday night with a
concert by Taylor Swift at a Shanghai stadium.
E-commerce grew rapidly in China due to
a lack of traditional retailing networks and
government efforts to promote internet use. The
country has the biggest online population with
more than 800 million web users.
Alibaba, JD.com, Baidu and other internet
giants have expanded into consumer finance,
entertainment and offline retailing.
Monday was Alibaba’s first Singles Day since its
founder, Jack Ma, stepped down as chairman
in September. He stayed on as a member of
the Alibaba Partnership, a 36-member group
with the right to nominate a majority of the
company’s board of directors.
E-commerce has created some of China’s
biggest fortunes.
Ma, 55, is China’s richest entrepreneur with a
net worth of $39 billion, according to the Hurun
Report, which tracks the country’s wealthy.
Colin Huang of Pinduoduo was No. 7 on Hurun’s
list at $19 billion. Zhang Jindong of Suning was
No. 15 at $14 billion and Richard Liu of JD.com
was No. 28 at $11 billion.