Bottom line: Xiaomi’s Singles Day sales show it’s still dependent on low-end models for its smartphone business, while Tencent shares could be set for a pause as it celebrates adulthood with its 18th birthday.
Tencent turns 18
After a couple weeks’ hiatus, I’m returning to the blogosphere with one item from last week’s Singles Day shopping extravaganza, and another from one of the few major Internet companies that was absent during that festival. In the Singles Day headlines is word from Xiaomi that it topped the list for most sales by a smartphone maker during the shopping fest. Meantime, media are noting that social networking giant Tencent (HKEx: 700) has just celebrated its 18th birthday by announcing it will give out 300 of its shares to each employee. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Alibaba’s 60 percent sales growth on Singles Day is truly impressive, but was almost certainly boosted by merchants that delayed logging transactions on its network until the 24-hour period to help meet their sales targets.
Alibaba shatters Singles Day sales record
The numbers are in, and e-commerce juggernaut Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) has posted a record performance for this year’s Singles Day online shopping extravaganza that has surprised even me for the margin by which it surpassed last year’s record. I’ll end the suspense right away and reveal that Alibaba posted 91.2 billion yuan ($14.3 billion) worth of sales over its platforms during the 24-hour online shopping binge, up more than 50 percent from last year’s $9.3 billion. (company announcement)
To put that in perspective, Alibaba posted $112 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV) for goods sold over all its platforms in this year’s entire second quarter. That means the Singles Day total is equal to 13 percent of its entire total for the 3 months through September, quite impressive for a single day. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Alibaba’s Singles Day sales this year are likely to meet its targets, growing by at least 20-30 percent, but the company should put less emphasis on such figures in the future and focus more on creating a high quality shopping event.
Alibaba shopping fest kicks off with a blast
It’s only a third of the way into the day as I write this, but e-commerce leader Alibaba(NYSE: BABA) is making sure I have more than enough data to last me the entire day as we kick off this year’s edition of its popular November 11 Singles Day online shopping extravaganza. The company began putting out figures as soon as the clock struck midnight, and has been issuing a steady stream of data ever since showing just how successful the spending fest has become.
I’ll review some of the early figures shortly, and admit they’re quite impressive in numbers-obsessed China. But that said, I’ve also heard from friends about the huge behind-the-scenes pressure that Alibaba is putting on its partners to meet their sales targets for the holiday, which in turn will help it post the impressive gains it’s seeking for its own sales. Read Full Post…
The following press releases and media reports about Chinese companies were carried on November 11. To view a full article or story, click on the link next to the headline.
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Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) Generates $5 Bln GMV in First 90 Minutes of Singles Day Festival (Businesswire)
Bottom line: A growing alliance between JD.com and Tencent could start to seriously challenge Alibaba’s dominance of China e-commerce in the next 2 years, as the rivals use the upcoming November 11 Singles Day to showcase their prowess.
JD joins Nov 11 courtship of online shoppers
This year’s November 11 Singles Day shopping extravaganza is shaping up as a guerrilla courtship of Chinese online shoppers by the nation’s 2 e-commerce leaders, as each vies for supremacy on a date that’s become the world’s busiest for online buying. Just days after leading operator Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) announced its own grand plans to seduce shoppers, rival JD.com (Nasdaq: JD) has come out with its own counter scheme that aims to court China’s hordes or singles in an alliance drawing on its growing ties with leading social networking (SNS) operator Tencent (HKEx: 700).
The stakes in this brewing war are huge. Last year alone, Alibaba reported 278 million orders worth $9.3 billion around the promotion that it created on the November 11 holiday, which represents the epitome of singledom due to its numerical representation as 11-11, or four 1’s. JD declined to give a sales value for its orders last year, but said it posted 14 million orders, which would translate to far more modest but still significant sum of about $500 million worth of merchandise sold based on Alibaba’s rate. Read Full Post…
Chatter in the microblogging realm this past week was squarely focused on the Double Eleven shopping binge that saw e-commerce sites and smartphone makers log impressive sales on the date also known as Singles Day. But not everyone was boasting about huge sales, as executives from early e-commerce leader Dangdang (NYSE: DANG) and smartphone aspirant Smartisan were both uncharacteristically quiet on their microblogs, hinting at mediocre results on the shopping holiday.
The situation was just the opposite at e-commerce leader Alibaba (NYSE: BABA), which single-handedly commercialized a day that now generates more sales than even Black Friday or Cyber Monday in the US. That rapid success in such a short time was putting a strain on Alibaba’s Alipay electronic payments arm, which reportedly was restricted to processing payments from Alibaba’s own e-commerce sites. That meant other companies’ sites often couldn’t accept Alipay for payments on their sites during the day.
Bottom line: Alibaba will to focus on globalization to maintain momentum for its overvalued stock, but the shares are likely to pull back in the first half of next year due to overvaluation.
Alibaba sales jump on Double Eleven
This year’s November 11 shopping day belonged to e-commerce leader Alibaba (NYSE: BABA), even though I’m just slightly reluctant to write too much about this overhyped company. But I would be remiss if I didn’t mention some of the impressive numbers that Alibaba logged during this year’s Double-Eleven Singles Day event, led by its headline total sales of 57.1 billion yuan ($9.3 billion), up 63 percent from last year. The market didn’t seem too impressed with the growth, with Alibaba’s shares tumbling 3.9 percent in the US trading day after the end of the Chinese shopping binge. Read Full Post…
I’m not a big fan of “events” like the upcoming November 11 Singles’ Day, which are often created by companies in an attempt to boost sales. But in this case the latest reports on the upcoming date are providing a bit of controversy and entertainment, with word that e-commerce leader Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) is taking steps to protect trademark rights to a shopping event that it single-handedly created. In this case, media are reporting that Alibaba is saying that it owns the rights to the “Double Eleven” trademark, and is telling media to reject related advertisements from rivals like JD.com (Nasdaq: JD). Read Full Post…
I’ll admit that I’m somewhat skeptical of e-commerce leader Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) due to its excessive hype and increasing lack of focus, even though the company regularly seems to defy gravity with a sky-high valuation that has made it China’s biggest Internet company. But despite my doubts, I’m actually somewhat upbeat on a new report that says the company aims to export its premier annual sales event as part of a much-needed global expansion to justify its high valuation. At the same time, another report saying the company will spend more than $1 billion on a rural expansion also looks like a smart move, coming a year after a similar expansion by its closest rival JD.com (Nasdaq: JD). Read Full Post…
