Alibaba’s Singles Day sales top $74 billion, planned rules hit shares

Alibaba sales for its post-Covid-19 Singles’ Day shopping extravaganza hit $74 billion, a haul that was overshadowed by a 10% drop in its shares on Wednesday after China published draft anti-trust rules aimed at internet platforms.

The world’s biggest sales event – eclipsing Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the United States – spanned 11 days this year, and brought sellers on Alibaba’s platforms 21 times as many orders by value as Amazon.com Inc’s two-day global Prime Day last month.

Such is its size that its performance is widely considered indicative of China’s post-virus economic recovery.

Alibaba rivals JD.com Inc and Pinduoduo Inc as well as firms such as Douyin – the Chinese version of Beijing ByteDance Technology Co Ltd’s TikTok – also held Singles’ Day events.