Locals splash big on Singles Day sale

SHANGHAI residents contributed the most in sales figures among all Chinese cities during a one-day online shopping spree on Singles Day on Sunday, China's largest e-commerce company Alibaba said yesterday.

Tmall.com, Alibaba's business to consumer unit, and Taobao.com, its consumer to consumer marketplace, took 1.35 billion yuan (US$217 million) from locals during a 24-hour promotion on Sunday that offered at least 50 percent discounts over a massive range of products.

That accounts for more than 7 percent of the 19.1 billion yuan single-day sales volume of Tmall and Taobao on that day, which was dubbed as Singles Day first by Chinese college students in the 1990s. The 50,000-plus merchants on Tmall took 13.2 billion yuan, Alibaba said. The amount is more than double the combined sales volume of 395 major Shanghai retailers during the week-long National Day holidays in October.

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