Singles' day and Double 11

The thirteenth 'Double 11 shopping carnival' has just passed. Buy buy buy! Mǎi Mǎi Mǎi 买买买! was for many a must, no reason required. Both Alibaba and JD have reached this year 2021, a new high in turnover. Originally, due to that some campus studented associated the four Arabic numerals '1' with four smooth sticks and so, they named the date November 11 'Singles' Day' Guānggùn jié 光棍节.

Singles' Day is an unofficial and non-traditional festival, and was originally an entertaining occasion circulated among young people to celebrate that they still stay in a 'proud' single club. Wikipedia says, it is widely recognized that the Singles' Day is originated from Nanjing University. In 1993, four senior students used to hold a "sleeping meeting" every night in the dormitory. For a period of time, the theme of the sleep meeting was to discuss how to get rid of the bachelor state. November 11 was then recognized as the "Singles' Day".

Since then, Singles’ Day has gradually developed into a campus fun culture in Nanjing universities and even universities around the world. As a group of students left the campus, this festival was gradually brought into society, and with the large group of adult single men and women, as well as the spread of group activities and online media, Singles’ Day became popular in the society, and has gradually shifted to shopping along with the online trends.

As of 2009, Alibaba has launched the online shopping promotion on November 11 via Taobao Mall (Tmall). At that time, the number of participating merchants and promotion efforts were limited, but the turnover far exceeded the expected effect, so it became a large-scale and annual Tmall event on November 11th. This annual event largely strengthened China's e-commerce industry and has gradually affected the international e-commerce industry. 

Double 11 is comparable with the Black Friday (黑色星期五 hēisè xīngqíwǔ) of the Western. Commercials pour out a lot of sensational discourse to promote the sells, far prior to the date.
      "If you are not a Single, you should buy something for your beloved one."
      "If you are still Single, treat yourself well, buy something for yourself, absolutely!"
      Buy your happiness, buy your lucky feeling. If you belief.

For the statistics regarding 2021 and 2020 Double 11 selling, please read the article via this link: https://www.linkedin.com/company/996692/admin/

 

Source: Wikipedia, Tubangzhu