Shanghai (AFP)

Sixty-eight seconds is the time that Chinese consumers spent the night from Sunday to Monday spending online their first billion dollars at the traditional "Singles Day", considered the largest operation in the world. sales, announced the Alibaba sector giant.

At exactly 00:00, millions of consumers rushed on their computers or mobile phones in the hope of benefiting from attractive discounts on a range of products, from electronics to ready-to-wear, including shoes or furnishings.

Alibaba and other Chinese e-commerce groups have been in the habit since 2009 of announcing discounts every November 11th, nicknamed the "Singles Day" because of the repetition of the "one" figure (11/11).

This shopping frenzy exceeds the value of "Black Friday", the Friday following Thanksgiving at the end of November in the United States. The Singles Festival, which is expected to have a strong purchasing power, is the largest event in the world of distribution.

On Alibaba's only platform, 7 billion yuan ($ 1 billion) was spent in 68 seconds ... even faster than last year, when the milestone was reached in 85 seconds .

This figure corresponds to the total value of goods purchased on these platforms, including shipping costs.

The mark of 100 billion yuan (13 billion euros) was crossed in one hour, 3 minutes and 59 seconds very exactly, 43 minutes less than last year, assured Alibaba, which represents by itself the half of e-commerce in China.

The strength of November 11 purchases is scrutinized by economists who are looking for clues as to the robustness of the country's economy, plagued by the trade war launched by the United States Donald Trump.

Last year, the total turnover of the day of Nov. 11 reported by Alibaba was 213.5 billion yuan (27 billion euros) in sales in the space of 24 hours.

This was a slowdown in the pace of growth from one year to the next: the turnover had indeed increased by only 27% in 2017, against + 39% the previous year.

The group of the eccentric billionaire Jack Ma, who has just retired, hopes to raise 15 billion US dollars in Hong Kong, during an IPO that could take place soon, reported Friday Bloomberg.

© 2019 AFP