The greenest Singles Day begins ... and with more scrutiny by the Government

A pack of 12

half-liter

costs 12 yuan.

The change is 1.63 euros.

Running shoes on the gym treadmill cost 14 euros.

The keyboard for the computer is 5 euros.

Two bottles of

gin

, one of

rum

and a José Cuervo tequila for the house party on Saturday, does not exceed 34 euros.

On a typical day, these products in stores on

, the giant Alibaba's shopping app, would have cost almost twice as much. Above all, alcohol, all imported, little variety, and at skyrocketing prices in a country that practically only produces its traditional liquor and a little beer and wine. But 11/11, Singles Day,

is not a normal day. Many years ago it became the golden day for Chinese e-commerce and grew to be the largest online shopping festival in the world.

November 11 of this year has not lost the usual consumerist excitement homeland. A record 290,000 brands with 14 million offers awaited online bargain hunters. More than 200 luxury brands have also participated in the event to offer around 100,000 new products.

Last night, before kicking off the big day,

revealed that since the discounts began on November 1, 382 brands had already billed

. Alibaba gave some examples such as that, in the first second of sale, consumers had left 41 million euros in new

. In the first four minutes of the opening of the shopping day, Apple had already exceeded the total sales of the first day of

Chinese

last year.

In Hangzhou, capital of China's Zhejiang province, where Alibaba's headquarters are located, British actor

appeared on a screen at midnight to kick off the last 24 hours of the Chinese shopping festival. Other years there was a great gala with guest superstars such as

or the acrobatics of the

But the 11 of the 11 this year has lost its shine. Alibaba wanted to moderate its usual boasting of sales volume and forgo the characteristic giant screen where everyone could follow every transaction up to the minute. The e-commerce empire founded by

and the rest of China's tech giants have been under strict regulatory scrutiny by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for more than a year. Beijing's antitrust crackdown has forced a change in aggressive business practices.

An Alibaba spokesperson said

night. This is the first time this has happened. It is not convenient to make much noise while in Beijing the leaders of the second world power are gathered in a plenary session in which they talk about sustainability and "common prosperity", a concept that President

translated as an adjustment of "excessive income" and high-income workers "contribute more to society" to correct wealth inequality in the country.

Earlier this year, e-commerce platform

pledged to donate € 1.3 billion in profits to farmers to increase their income, while Alibaba pledged € 13.5 billion in subsidies for small and medium-sized businesses.

On Singles Day last year, consumers spent € 65 billion on Alibaba's online shopping platforms during the 11-day festival.

Its closest rival,

, posted sales of $ 35 billion.

These transactions involve millions of workers handling billions of packages.

.

The courier services forecast more work this year than the previous one, when they handled 3.96 billion packages between November 1 and 11.

All of this comes at an environmental cost in the midst of the Glasgow climate summit, where Xi Jinping recommitted that China would hit the carbon cap by 2030 and reach emissions neutrality by 2060.

There are hardly any figures, but on Singles Day 2016,

did a study estimating that order deliveries generated 52,400 tons of carbon dioxide.

Alibaba has said it plans to cut order-related carbon emissions by 30% this year.

It's touting recycling services, data centers that run on renewable energy, and even algorithms that match products with the right-sized package to reduce waste.

The company also offers 100 million yuan worth of coupons for eco-friendly brands.

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