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Singles’ Day was once the biggest, most shameless celebration of consumption in the world: starting with a confetti-filled gala, and brands, celebrity masters and Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant at the center of it all.
This Singles’ Day, an annual tradition of November 11, Chinese shoppers are still likely to buy a lot of things. But this year’s entertainment seems a little more shy.
The shopping holiday, invented by Alibaba more than a decade ago, is evolving for a new era for China’s internet industry that emphasizes fairness and responsibility and publicly excludes growth at all costs. Past Singles Days were opportunities for Alibaba to showcase their talents. latest innovations to persuade people to spend more recklessly. The main themes this year are: green logistics, environmentally friendly products and “careful” consumption.
Alibaba’s Tmall app gives “green coupons” for discounts on energy-efficient and low-impact products. The company’s logistics unit offers to recycle packaging waste at 60,000 collection stations across China. Alibaba said it will donate one yuan, or about 16 cents, to the charity whenever he interacts with a social media post about the company’s charitable initiatives during the event.
“We must harness the power of 11.11 to drive sustainable development and promote inclusion to consumers, merchants and partners across our ecosystem,” said Chris Tung, Alibaba’s chief marketing officer. announced last month.
One of the mainstays of Singles’ Day was Alibaba’s announcement of its boom final sales figure, which has always exceeded the previous year’s boom by an extraordinary margin. When asked if Alibaba would continue the tradition this year, Mr. Tung only objected, saying the company’s focus had shifted from pure sales growth to “sustainable growth”.
An Alibaba spokesperson also declined to say this week whether the company will announce a sales figure after the event.
(Alibaba is already beginning to silently reject the meaning of the Singles Day marquee: Last year, sales figure Disclosure was the total value of orders not just during 24 hours Not on November 11, but also in the 10 days leading up to it. The gross product volume metric Alibaba uses has no standard definition and gives the company freedom to choose the outcome it reports.)
Such are the times for Big Tech in China under Xi Jinping. As Mr. Xi prepares to seek an unprecedented third term as the country’s top leader, his government has put new regulatory barriers around Alibaba and other internet heavyweights, ending the euphoric era of unbridled boom times for the industry.
This spring, China’s antitrust authority fine Alibaba $2.8 billion for anticompetitive practices, the largest penalty in agency history. Financial regulators have ordered Alibaba’s internet finance sister company Ant to restructure its business and subject it to tighter surveillance.
Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma was once a regular at the Singles Day evening premiere. Scarlett Johansson and pose on stage Daniel Craig. This year, Mr. Ma has mostly disappeared from the public eye, sparking nervous speculation about his safety.
Last month, the South China Morning Post, the Hong Kong newspaper owned by Alibaba, anonymous sources cited He said that Mr. Ma had visited research institutions in the Netherlands. The trip was a sign that the authorities were not preventing them from leaving China, as they sometimes do to people in connection with investigations or court proceedings.
That was reason enough for Alibaba’s shareholders to cheer up after a year when the company’s share price dropped by nearly half.
Beijing has not given up on its efforts to make internet companies less greedy. Regulators have told companies to stop blocking connections to each other’s services. They have ordered e-commerce sites Not bombarding users with marketing messages ahead of Singles’ Day.
Another new password for Chinese capitalists is:common welfare” or a more equitable distribution of wealth. shortly after Mr. Xi approved the theme Alibaba committed in August 15.5 billion dollars to the goals of “common prosperity”. A few weeks later, the company’s CEO, Daniel Zhang, added Alibaba’s “common well-being.”core corporate responsibilities”
One way Alibaba can do its part is to offer more support to small businesses selling on their platform in China.
Wei Wei, 35, is the co-founder of the colorful patterned socks brand Beats Per Minute 120. For small vendors like him, Singles’ Day has never been a guaranteed bonanza, he said. During the event, he said that Alibaba tends to drive shoppers on its apps to large merchants that can deliver the dazzling sales growth that Alibaba likes to showcase.
Mr. Wei said that Alibaba recently cut some fees for merchants and provided more guidance to small sellers, including himself. But what would really help is that more customers said eyeballs. Alibaba knows it’s getting more expensive to attract those eyes as the Chinese version of TikTok faces stiffer competition from platforms like Douyin.
Still, Mr. Wei is happy to receive support from Alibaba. Other smaller traders, those with duller trading prospects, said “they are not included”.
Alibaba declined to comment.
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