ASIA / PACIFIC
November 21, 2016
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 5
Chinese e-shoppers spend billions on “Singles Day ”
EXTREME E-COMMERCE. Models take part
in a fashion show to coincide with “Singles Day” at
JD.com headquarters in Beijing, China. In a bright
spot for China’s cooling economy, online shoppers
spent billions of dollars on Singles Day, a quirky holi-
day that has grown into the world’s busiest day for
e-commerce. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
By Joe McDonald
AP Business Writer
EIJING — In a bright spot for
China’s cooling economy, online
shoppers spent billions of dollars
on “Singles Day,” a quirky holiday that has
grown into the world’s busiest day for
e-commerce.
The country’s biggest e-commerce
brand, Alibaba Group, said sales by the
thousands of retailers on its platforms
passed 91.2 billion yuan ($13.4 billion) in
the first 15 hours of the event. That is four
times the $3 billion research firm
comScore says Americans spent in total
last year on Cyber Monday, the biggest
online shopping day in the U.S.
Rivals including JD.com, VIP.com, and
Suning offered deep discounts on clothing,
smartphones, travel packages, and other
goods to attract shoppers.
JD.com, the country’s biggest online
direct retailer and Alibaba’s top rival, said
it tested delivery by drone to customers in
four rural areas in what the company
believed to be the first commercial use of
such service. The company said its sales
passed last year’s Singles Day total at
1:33pm, but gave no financial amount.
Singles Day was begun by Chinese
college students in the 1990s as a version
of Valentine’s Day for people without
romantic partners.
The November 11 date was picked to be
“11.11” — four singles. Young people treat
each other to dinner or give gifts to woo
B
that special someone and end their single
status.
The spending gives a boost to the ruling
Communist Party’s efforts to nurture
consumer-based economic growth and
reduce reliance on trade and investment.
E-commerce sales in China rose by 26.1
percent in the first nine months of the
year. Economic growth for that period held
steady at 6.7 percent, but that was its
lowest level since the 2008 global crisis.
Forecasters expect the economy to cool
further next year as regulators try to rein
in a boom in bank lending and real estate
sales that is pushing up debt levels and
housing costs.
China has the biggest population of
internet users at 710 million, according to
government data. Some 410 million people
shop online for goods ranging from
clothing and groceries to manicures and
plane tickets.
“Online shopping is getting more and
more common,” said He Mei, an employee
of a health products company in her 30s
who had waited for Singles Day to buy an
indoor air filtering machine at a discount.
“Young guys, especially those in their
20s, don’t really go out to buy things, and
they buy pretty much everything online,”
she said. “It’s so easy and it saves time and
money.”
The migration of Chinese consumers to
online commerce and entertainment is
squeezing traditional retailers, cinemas,
and other businesses, forcing them to
improve service and add offerings.
E-commerce has risen from three
percent of Chinese consumer spending in
2010 to 15 percent last year, according to
Boston Consulting Group. It forecasts on-
line spending will rise by 20 percent a year,
hitting $1.6 trillion by 2020, compared
with six percent growth for offline retail.
Researchers attribute the rapid rise of
Singles Day to demographics and timing.
University graduates who adopted the
holiday earn more and shop online. Also,
Singles Day comes as people receive
monthly paychecks and need to buy winter
clothes.
Unlike other events such as the Lunar
New Year, China’s biggest family holiday,
it involves few other expenses such as
travel or banquets, leaving more money for
gifts.
This year, Alibaba hired actress Scarlett
Johansson, football star David Beckham,
basketball legend Kobe Bryant, and
pop-rock band One Republic for a pre-sale
gala that was broadcast online to drum up
attention.
China bans ‘fatty’ Kim Jong Un nickname on websites
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese websites are
censoring “Kim Fatty the Third,” a
nickname widely used to disparage North
Korean leader Kim Jong Un, after officials
from his country reportedly conveyed their
displeasure in a meeting with their
Chinese counterparts.
Searches for the Chinese words “Jin San
Pang” on the search engine Baidu and
microblogging platform Weibo returned no
results recently.
The nickname pokes fun at Kim’s girth
and his status as the third generation of
the Kim family to rule the world’s only
hereditary communist dynasty. It’s
especially
popular
among
young,
irreverent Chinese who tend to look down
on their country’s would-be ally.
Relations between China and North
Korea have been strained by the North’s
nuclear weapons program, which China
has condemned along with South Korea,
Japan, the United States, and Russia. But
Beijing continues to support the Kim
regime with limited trade and diplomatic
backing.
North Korean officials, fearing that Kim
would find out about the nickname, lodged
a formal request with China recently to
prohibit names disparaging Kim from
appearing in the media, according to Hong
Kong newspaper reports.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman
Geng Shuang said reports of the banning
of “Jin San Pang” didn’t “comply with
facts.”
“The Chinese government stays
committed to building a healthy and
civilized environment of opinions,” he
added. “We disapprove of referring to the
leader of any country with insulting and
mocking remarks.”
“Kim Fatty the Third” is such a widely
used term in China that it is sometimes
suggested by auto-complete algorithms on
web portals such as Baidu, China’s leading
search engine. While searches for “Jin San
Pang” returned no results earlier this
month, Baidu left untouched results for
other versions of the nickname, such as
“Kim Fat Fat Fat.”
Baidu spokeswoman Tracy Hu declined
to comment.
The Beijing-based company has
typically said that its policy is to
provide accurate search results while
also complying with Chinese regula-
tions.
South Korea to test self-driving car in real traffic
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Self-
driving cars soon will hit the road in South
Korea.
Seoul National University professor
Seo Seung-woo said that a self-driving
car developed by his team will start
roaming Seoul streets early next year
thanks to a revised law that took effect this
month.
His team has been testing automated
driving inside the university campus with
a Genesis sedan outfitted with sensors and
cameras. The vehicle drove more than
10,000 kilometers without incident in the
past two years, but could not leave the
campus because of regulations.
The new law allows automated cars to
travel public roads around the country.
Seo unveiled two upgraded self-driving
vehicles that can navigate narrow streets.
One of them will be tested in traffic after it
is certified by the government.
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