双十一: 全球规模最大的购物狂欢盛宴 - 2016年11月09日

ON November 11, as Europe commemorates Armistice Day and the US licks its wounds after a bruising presidential election, the people of China will be engaged in the world’s largest one-day shopping extravaganza.

It’s called Single’s Day or Double-11 Day — an obscure folk holiday transformed by Alibaba into a 24-hour online shopping spree. Last year the event raked in sales of US$14.3 billion, greater than the annual GDP of Nicaragua, Laos or Jamaica. Purchases via smartphones accounted for 72 percent of sales.

The folk holiday originated on the campus of Nanjing University in 1993 as a way for unmarried people to party together and celebrate their single status. They chose the 11th day of the 11th month to symbolize the solo nature of the numeral one.