Shanghai (AFP)
The Chinese indulged in the ritual of bargain hunting on the internet on Wednesday for the "Singles' Day", considered the world's biggest e-commerce event.
For over a decade, November 11 has sparked an online shopping spree in China, where the date (11.11) is considered auspicious for singles to consume.
The e-commerce giant Alibaba, at the origin of this event in 2009, now imitated by all of its competitors like JD.com and Pinduoduo, changed the rules of the game this year by starting promotions on November 1, so that you usually had to wait until the 12th stroke of midnight on November 11 to start collecting discounts.
According to the group founded by the eccentric billionaire Jack Ma, Alibaba's various platforms have seen a turnover of 372.3 billion yuan (47.7 billion EUR) this year since November 1, or more than the GDP of Iceland, Lebanon and Georgia combined.
Alibaba did not provide a comparison with last year's sales, as many economists hoped to read these figures as confirmation of the recovery of the Chinese economy after the halt suffered at the beginning of the year. due to epidemic.
Each year, Alibaba traditionally announces a new sales record on the occasion of November 11.
Last year, he reported a turnover of 268.4 billion yuan (34.74 billion euros) in 24 hours, up 26% from the previous year.
For 2020, economist Melanie Sanders, of Bain & Company, expects the trend to continue due to the lockdown that has led even more Chinese to order products from home.
"We expect a very dynamic new year, a new record," she told AFP.
"Retail sales in China are now almost back to their level of last year."
After putting its economy almost entirely to a halt in the first quarter, China, where the new coronavirus appeared last year, largely contained the epidemic in the spring.
Activity has since picked up and the country is expected to be the only major global economy to post positive growth this year, according to the IMF.
© 2020 AFP