Alibaba's Singles Day Shopping Festival Reaps Rp 453 Trillion in Sales

Alibaba Holding Group Ltd.'s Singles Day 11.11 online shopping festival raked in US$30.8 billion, or approximately Rp 452.7 trillion (at an exchange rate of Rp 14,700 per US dollar). This Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) from the largest e-commerce shopping festival in China, held on Sunday, November 11, 2018, represents a 21.26% increase compared to the US$25.4 billion achieved the previous year.

Although still increasing, growth has shown signs of slowing down, as illustrated in the graph below. In 2012, Alibaba's Singles Day GMV surged by 270.73% to US$3.04 billion. This growth decreased to 91% in 2013 and further slowed to 60.34% the following year.

Singles Day initially started as an internet-based shopping event to celebrate student holidays, but it has evolved into a month-long online shopping festival culminating on November 11th. This shopping festival, dedicated to single people, has now surpassed the largest online sales in the US, such as Black Friday and Thanksgiving sales. For context, online sales during Black Friday reached only US$2.36 billion and Thanksgiving sales reached US$1.57 billion. In comparison, Singles Day sales in 2017 reached US$25.4 billion.