When it comes to the proverbial cake, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) is one of the few companies in this world which have had the good fortune of not only consuming what it baked but licking the icing and relishing the cherries too. As celebrations for Singles Day kicked off in the world’s largest democracy, people flocked to the online retailer in multitudes to look for that one ‘special’ gift and if the figures are anything to go by, most of them seem to have found it too.
For the online Chinese retailer, this collective exercise on part of the people resulted in revenue of more than $1 billion during the first twenty minutes and double of that, meaning $2 billion at the end of the first hour. Based on this, the prediction that total revenue earned by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) will exceed its last year’s earnings by a wide margin is likely to come true. In the words of Allen Xu, Managing Director of a consultancy firm named OgilvyOne –
“November 11 is a key milestone for Alibaba. The company used the festival to build its dominance as an e-commerce player linking businesses to consumers in China. With the IPO of Alibaba, the company has the ambition to make this brand go global.”
Singles Day is the Chinese version of Valentine’s Day created by youngsters during the 1990s’ and the reason it is celebrated on 11th November every year is because the date is an apt representation of lone men and women. Credit goes to Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA)’s ingenuity to capitalize on widespread sentiments by introducing global brands and offering attractive discounts.
Being the hot topic, the company came under the scanner at CNBC wherein Steve Liesman asserted that Alibaba is the undisputed leader of online shopping in China and hence enjoys a lion’s share – about 80% – of the total online sales in this Asian country. He went on to compare it with American online retailers, eBay and Amazon, and not only was the company way ahead but appears to have the current metrics in its favor too.
Thus, it is but natural for Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) to gobble up the entire cake and subsequently move on to higher standards.
This article has been written by Vinita Basu.
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