Chinese state newspaper blasts ‘worship of turnover’ after Alibaba’s Singles Day

Securities Daily said the Singles’ Day event had achieved many years of record breaking sales, but had also given rise to practices such as spam text messaging of users, unfair competition and merchants faking discounts. — Reuters

SHANGHAI: The focus of China’s Singles’ Day shopping festival should shift from a “traffic and sales war” to one of science and technology, a state-backed newspaper said on Nov 12, describing the “worship of turnover” as incompatible with China’s new development path.

The article in the Securities Daily comes a day after the annual shopping blitz spearheaded by Alibaba Group, which recorded 540.3bil yuan (RM352.05bil) in orders over the 11-day event.