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Alibaba hits nearly $18B in ‘Singles Day’ orders in 12 hours

nytimes.com

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Re: Alibaba hits nearly $18B in ‘Singles Day’ orders in 12 hours

#61

Post by maxerickson »

taurath wrote: post #10
lunaru wrote: post #4

Every year around this time we get the singles day news that yet another record has been broken. I'm going to guess it's going to be the same next year and the year after that since the Chinese middle class is growing (and adopting Western debt-driven spending). Not really a surprise. If anyone in the US wants to partake in the frenzy, I believe aliexpress is doing a Singles Day thing (using US timezone, so it hasn't…

I really don't think the US is prepared for what happens when the entire world turns towards Chinese consumers and away from them.

At what percentage of the global economy do you think the US will become uninteresting?

(it's currently between ¼ and ⅕ of the global economy)

Re: Alibaba hits nearly $18B in ‘Singles Day’ orders in 12 hours

#62

Post by quicklime »

adventured wrote: post #55
quicklime wrote: post #50

The Alibaba Group's revenue for the entire 2017 was ~$23B (see https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/BABA/financials?p=BABA ), so making $18B in a single day sounds unbelievable. Is one of these numbers incorrect?

They're both correct. Alibaba makes almost all of its money from advertising. They're frequently incorrectly portrayed as a traditional retailer, akin to Amazon (which itself is increasingly not a retailer). They're a retailer in the sense that eBay is. They own no merchandise, they sell no merchandise. They're a platform that other people sell on/through. They don't primarily make money from listing fees though (as…

I see, so it looks like what's being measured here is "gross merchandise volume", which is the total value of orders placed on their platform. Whereas the revenue in their financial statements is the money they make from advertising and their other businesses.

Re: Alibaba hits nearly $18B in ‘Singles Day’ orders in 12 hours

#63

Post by shalmanese »

lunaru wrote: post #4

Every year around this time we get the singles day news that yet another record has been broken. I'm going to guess it's going to be the same next year and the year after that since the Chinese middle class is growing (and adopting Western debt-driven spending). Not really a surprise. If anyone in the US wants to partake in the frenzy, I believe aliexpress is doing a Singles Day thing (using US timezone, so it hasn't…

It's still a hugely significant number. $18B is $13.20USD for every man, woman and child in China. Considering China's GDP is $8000USD, that's basically 60% of a single day's earnings for every person in China being spent at just one company in 12 hours.

It would be the same as everyone in the US spending $100 on the same day or $32B in a single day (which is almost half of US online spending for a year).

Re: Alibaba hits nearly $18B in ‘Singles Day’ orders in 12 hours

#65

Post by adventured »

quicklime wrote: post #62
adventured wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're both correct. Alibaba makes almost all of its money from advertising. They're frequently incorrectly portrayed as a traditional retailer, akin to Amazon (which itself is increasingly not a retailer). They're a retailer in the sense that eBay is. They own no merchandise, they sell no merchandise. They're a platform that other people sell on/through. They don't primarily make money from listing fees though (as…

I see, so it looks like what's being measured here is "gross merchandise volume", which is the total value of orders placed on their platform. Whereas the revenue in their financial statements is the money they make from advertising and their other businesses.

That's right. eBay's gross merchandise volume for example was $84 billion in fiscal 2016 (their revenue take was $9 billion).

Every year the media makes a big deal about Alibaba's merchandise volume. It's a cute soundbite, and it's certainly a large number, but it's not how they make money at all. Their own revenue can technically grow far faster or slower than the merchandise volume (I would expect them to outperform their merchandise volume growth rate in the coming years, as they increase ad rates as China's economy scales the value ladder & GDP per capita keeps climbing, while their manufacturing and exports grow very modestly if at all).

Re: Alibaba hits nearly $18B in ‘Singles Day’ orders in 12 hours

#66

Post by praulv »

For someone having never ordered from alibaba or aliexpres - other than briefly fleeting with drone spare parts - what exactly of use and purpose would you buy from there? I can see large scale uses for industrial machinery / commodities but what about the day to day consumer. Pointless gadgets? I briefly looked at lightinthebox for female accessories and they seemed tacky, overly glittery and just plain cheap looking. It did make me wonder about the premium Western consumers pay to line corporate profits for chinese factory products. Ignoring secure, specialised electronics factories, most day to day fashion accessories in Sachs 5th Av, Macy's etc will be quality controlled chinese/indian products. Is it possible to get hold of these on aliexpress?

Re: Alibaba hits nearly $18B in ‘Singles Day’ orders in 12 hours

#67

Post by geomark »

voltagex_ wrote: post #60
geomark wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Among the items I ordered today: HC-06: Dealextreme $5.50, Banggood $5.99, Gearbest $6.57, Aliexpress $2.58 Arduino Nano v3.0: Dealextreme $3.46, Banggood $2.77, Gearbest $4.27, Aliexpress $1.66

Wow! I haven't seen that kind of differential for a while. I wonder if it's just because of 11.11

I made a mental note of some of the prices before the 11.11 discount kicked in. The discounts were around 10%, sometimes less. So the Aliexpress regular prices were already way lower.

The thing is, on Aliexpress there are many, many sellers of each of those items and there is often a significant price difference among them. If that is due to quality or delivery times I have not figured it out yet. So I usually buy from the cheapest who has a fair number of sales and few if any complaints in the reviews.

Re: Alibaba hits nearly $18B in ‘Singles Day’ orders in 12 hours

#68

Post by sokoloff »

praulv wrote: post #66

For someone having never ordered from alibaba or aliexpres - other than briefly fleeting with drone spare parts - what exactly of use and purpose would you buy from there? I can see large scale uses for industrial machinery / commodities but what about the day to day consumer. Pointless gadgets? I briefly looked at lightinthebox for female accessories and they seemed tacky, overly glittery and just plain cheap lookin…

I order 3D printer parts, physical hardware (fasteners, typically), electronics components (Arduino work-a-likes and shields), small tchotchkes for kids [birthday party giveaways], cheap computer accessories and cables (USB chargers, USB cables, USB-C adapters, audio adapters and cables, etc).

That's all aliexpress. Alibaba is more industrial, negotiate for pricing; Aliexpress is a pure marketplace. With the subsidized shipping, I can often get something for <$2 that would be $8 on Amazon and $25 at Staples/BestBuy.

Re: Alibaba hits nearly $18B in ‘Singles Day’ orders in 12 hours

#69

Post by golergka »

oh_sigh wrote: post #32
myroon5 wrote: post #27

"One offer, from the Chongqing-based online alcohol brand Jiang Xiao Bai, allowed 33 fast-moving customers to make a single payment of 11,111 yuan, or $1,673, for a lifetime supply of a grain liquor known as baijiu"

A gallon of baijiu is a life time supply of baijiu, dependent on intake rates.

Less than 4 liters of any alcoholic drink, including pure 100% alcohol, sounds like a month-long supply at the very best.

Re: Alibaba hits nearly $18B in ‘Singles Day’ orders in 12 hours

#70

Post by adventured »

shalmanese wrote: post #63
lunaru wrote: post #4

Every year around this time we get the singles day news that yet another record has been broken. I'm going to guess it's going to be the same next year and the year after that since the Chinese middle class is growing (and adopting Western debt-driven spending). Not really a surprise. If anyone in the US wants to partake in the frenzy, I believe aliexpress is doing a Singles Day thing (using US timezone, so it hasn't…

It's still a hugely significant number. $18B is $13.20USD for every man, woman and child in China. Considering China's GDP is $8000USD, that's basically 60% of a single day's earnings for every person in China being spent at just one company in 12 hours. It would be the same as everyone in the US spending $100 on the same day or $32B in a single day (which is almost half of US online spending for a year).

US consumers spend over $32 billion every day of the year. The average American adult spends $57,000 per year as of 2016. The consumer economy in the US is around $13 trillion.

http://www.businessinsider.com/13-trillion-us-consumer-getti...

China's GDP is $11.x trillion for 2017.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nomi...

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