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Alibaba
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Alibaba’s Taobao Live hits US$7.5 billion in first 30 minutes of presales for Singles’ Day

  • Skincare products, feminine hygiene goods and household cleaning items are among the most popular categories at this year’s Singles’ Day shopping festival
  • More than 400 Alibaba executives and 300 celebrities will hold individual live-streaming sessions on Taobao Live

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Live-streaming is expected to take centre stage at this year’s Singles’ Day, the world’s largest online shopping festival. Photo: AP
Jane Zhang
Taobao Live, the live-streaming platform for merchants on Alibaba Group Holding’s Taobao Marketplace, posted about US$7.5 billion total transactions in the first 30 minutes of the e-commerce giant’s presales campaign for China’s annual Singles’ Day shopping festival on Wednesday last week.

That marked a 400 per cent jump in sales over the same period last year, according to data released by Alibaba at a press conference on Thursday. Alibaba is the parent company of the South China Morning Post.

Before the presales kicked off last week, nearly 10 million tonnes of products – almost double from last year – had been moved by Cainiao Network, Alibaba’s smart logistics unit, into the warehouses that it operates.

Skincare products, feminine hygiene goods and household cleaning items are among this year’s most popular categories, according to Alibaba. It said inventories of imported cosmetics for men have increased by more than 30 times over a year ago, while those of imported pet food doubled.

Chinese internet celebrity Viya Huang is one of the live-streaming stars taking part in the presales campaign for Singles’ Day on Alibaba Group Holding’s Taobao Live platform. Photo: VCG via Getty Images
Chinese internet celebrity Viya Huang is one of the live-streaming stars taking part in the presales campaign for Singles’ Day on Alibaba Group Holding’s Taobao Live platform. Photo: VCG via Getty Images

Live-streaming is expected to take centre stage at this year’s Singles’ Day, reflecting how this has become an important sales channel for online merchants.

Top Chinese influencers, such as Li Jiaqi and Viya Huang, have already started their special live-streaming sessions ahead of Singles’ Day, also known as “Double 11” because the event is held on November 11 every year.

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