11 November or rather four singles, 11/11, is celebrated as Singles Day. On Singles Day the e-commerce powerhouse, Alibaba generated a whopping Dollars 25 billion.
What is Singles Day?
It kicked off in the year 1993 by Chinese singletons to mingle amongst each other. Various e-commerce houses eyed the opportunity and have been several contributions in making at a grand event by this decade.
Where did originate?
The Bachelors’ Day or Chinese Singles’ Day came into existence at Nanjing University in 1993. Slowly the celebrations found their way to other colleges.
Various theories are in existence regarding the origin of the festival. The most accepted one is that it began through the dorms of Nanjing University. It is said that four university students seeded the idea for the Singles Day as they wanted to celebrate their ‘single’ status.
In the beginning, it was organized by single men only but now it is celebrated by both the sexes with equal glee.
What happens of 11/11?
On this date, singletons meet and parties are organized. Blind dates are organized to change the singles’ status.
A sort of symbolism has been associated with the date:
“1”: stands for an individual person
“11”: Two individuals, being together
2 x (11): Celebration of 2 separate couples
Also read: International Tongue Twister Day: Get your tongue tied trying these twisters ten times
How many sales take place on this day?
In the year 2017, Alibaba generated more than Dollars 25 billion, this year they are expected to break even that record.
Meaning that the event generates almost 6 times more than Amazon’s Big Billion Day Sale. The Alibaba is also almost 4 times larger than Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
In Germany, Mediamarkt participates in the promotion of Singles’ Day. Whereas in Southeast Asia, Lazada Group has reported selling 6.5 million items in the year 2017.
