Alibaba’s shopping culture fails to lure Europe’s binge buyers

Live streaming by Chinese influencers like Wei Ya and “lipstick king” Li Jiaqi, peddling everything from skincare products to toilet paper, lured millions to Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s biggest binge-shopping day last month, posting a record $75 billion in sales. In Europe, the event barely made a ripple.

While Alibaba’s Tmall platform in China logged 583,000 orders in one second at its peak on the Hangzhou-based company’s Nov. 11 Singles Day, infomercials in France on its platform during the event rarely got more than 1,000 views.

As Asia’s biggest company’s push internationally takes on greater urgency with Beijing’s crackdown on internet and fintech giants, it’s finding that its marketplace model has yet to gain traction in Europe.