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China's Singles' Day smashes Black Friday to smithereens

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VT
Ahhh, thanksgiving. Loved more than Christmas by many, it’s a day of crispy turkey, gluttonous amounts of pumpkin pie, and gratitude for the wonderful gifts and people you’re blessed with. It’s a heartwarming concept, really. But then, the very next day, Americans embark upon a frenzy of consumerism for all the things we’ve been trained to think we need; racing each other to the best deals, queuing from 4am for an iPhone and punching strangers for a TV. Yes, there are few traditions more ironic than Black Friday. But despite how much Black Friday's influence may seem to be everywhere you look, there is one shopping extravaganza that makes it look tame: China’s equivalent, Singles' Day. Falling on November 11 this year, Singles' Day sees millions of Chinese take to the internet to scout out the best deals as retailers slash their prices for 24 hours only. But while Black Friday is often seen as  a chance to do some early Christmas shopping - not that it's always appreciated - Singles' Day is all about self-love and showering yourself with gifts - which is kind of awesome, in a different kind way. And if this year’s figures are anything to go by, the Chinese aren’t shy when it comes to a bit of self-serving retail therapy.   In 2017, the event broke all records, generating a whopping 168.2 billion yuan in online sales in just one day, the equivalent of about $25.3 billion; by comparison, the revenue generated in the US over the four-day Black Friday/ Cyber Monday weekend last year was $43.6 billion. To put that in perspective, the Chinese spent (on average) seven times more per person on Singles' Day than Americans did on Cyber Monday. So next time you're adding that thing you really don't need into your basket, you may officially remind yourself that someone is always going one step further than you.  Singles' day originated back in the eighties amid a rising tide of consumerism in China, and was originally thought of as an “anti-Valentines” day, where single people could buy presents for themselves, presumably to make up for the fact that no one else was buying them anything. As you might expect, China’s now defunct “one-child” policy has led to somewhat of a pro-male gender imbalance - by 2030, it is estimated that a quarter of men will never have married - and so with a lot more single men than women, the day has now also earned the nickname Bachelor’s Day. However, in a brilliant, if ironic, tale of optimism, Singles' Day also sees condom sales surge.  With some people prepared to spend hundreds of dollars on Singles' Day, it goes without saying that if you want to snag the best bargains you’ve got to get your head in the game before it even arrives. As in the US, there are previews for the best offers, apps where you can virtually try on clothes before you buy them, and even a four-hour fashion show where smartphone users can instantly purchase the clothes a model is wearing, should they wish to. The very best deals are limited, so many people wait up to fight it out at one second past midnight; the sales also end at midnight on the dot.  While Black Friday and Cyber Monday are based around the principle of retailers competing against each other to offer the best deals, in China the event is primarily based around just one megalith of an online retailer, Alibaba. The Chinese equivalent of Amazon, Alibaba transformed Singles' Day into a major event in 2009 just as online shopping became big in China; in 2016, they processed more than 12,000 transactions per second. Although other sites do exist, many are indirectly owned by Alibaba or simply dwarfed in terms of spend.  Not ones to be shy about their achievements, Alibaba even have a giant Singles' Day clock counting up the yuan in real time as it’s spent, which is then proudly shown off to a gigantic media pack at a celebratory television gala. This year the online retailer even reached out to overseas Chinese customers for the first time. Having found particular success in Southeast Asia, it's now expected to make even bigger waves abroad in the coming years - as if the Black Friday wasn’t a hefty enough dose of consumerism for the entire year. However, as much as everyone likes a bargain, Singles' Day isn’t without its critics. Much like Black Friday, it is seen by many as exploiting production workers lower down the food chain, a materialistic betrayal of Chinese values and catastrophic for the environment. In 2016, according to Greenpeace, clothing sales during the event contributed to over 300,000 tons of carbon emissions being released into the environment.  China may like to portray itself as the archetypal example of a communist state done-good, but make no mistake about it: as Singles' Day proves, there is nowhere quite as capitalist as China. Booming economic growth, huge exports and a powerful stock market have all combined to make its economy is the second largest in the world, and is expected to overtake the USA sooner rather than later. As Edmund Harris, portfolio manager of the Guinness Atkinson China and Hong Kong Fund (ICHKX) told Forbes: "Modern China is encapsulated in days like Singles' Day Saturday". And sooner or later, this way of getting us to spend more is going to hit our shores too.