From splurge to ‘common prosperity’: Alibaba tones down Singles Day

An advertisement to promote JD.com's Singles' Day shopping festival in Shanghai, China on Nov 1, 2021. The environment has changed dramatically for China’s big e-commerce platforms – especially Alibaba and its founder Jack Ma – as the Chinese government under President Xi Jinping targets what were seen as excesses and abuses in the country’s vast and free-wheeling 'platform economy'. — Reuters

SHANGHAI: Alibaba Group’s annual ‘Singles Day’ shopping spree is set for its most sober tone ever this year, as the retail giant preaches sustainability rather than hyping the usual sales boom amid calls by Beijing to promote “common prosperity”.

In 2020, Alibaba expanded what it calls the world’s biggest online shopping festival from a one-day Nov 11 event into a 11-day extravaganza, with celebrity performances and a sales metric ticking over live on a scoreboard that ended with the news that it had racked up US$74bil (RM306.98bil) in orders, or ‘gross merchandise value’ (GMV), flashing big and bright.