Is it China’s biggest sale day? The biggest sales day of the year?

Today is November 11. It was just a normal workday here, but in China it was a special day.

Today in China is a day called "Double Eleven." It is a major event day when Chinese e-commerce sites, led by giants such as Tmall and JD.net, launch promotional campaigns, and in recent years it has become the day with the highest sales of the year.

Because a wide variety of products, including home appliances and cosmetics, can be purchased at heavily discounted prices, Chinese internet users can hardly put down their smartphones and PCs from morning to night.

Please refer to the image below for detailed sales figures. Currency: yuan 

It was found that in 2021, sales reached 9,651.2 billion yuan (17 trillion yen).

Singles' Day (Japanese reading: Kōkonsetsu, Chinese: 光棍节, pinyin: guāng gùn jié, Kuanku nchie) is the "day of single people" celebrated by Chinese people on November 11. It is also called "Bachelor's Day."

In China, what is now called "Double Eleven" refers to the huge online shopping sale held every year on November 11, and it was started in 2009 by Alibaba Group's Taobao Mall (an online shop run by Alibaba, renamed Tmall in 2012). In its first year, sales on that single day reached 50 million yuan, and by 2018 they had reached 213.5 billion yuan.

Also, because the four ones line up, people commonly call it "Singles' Day" (Japanese reading: Kōkonsetsu, Chinese: 光棍节, pinyin: guāng gùn jié, Kuanku nchie). Since it is a Chinese slang term meaning "single man," it is often translated as "Bachelor's Day." It may be that Alibaba chairman Jack Ma intended to make this day an online bargain day so people could relieve the loneliness of being alone by impulse shopping, but in any case, there is no doubt that "Double Eleven" was a huge commercial success. (Source: China Culture Center)

The shopping habit of Double Eleven is just like the habit of buying KFC on Christmas; it is a custom created by commerce. By the way, in China, on Christmas Eve, people sometimes exchange apples with each other. This is to wish each other peace and safety. Because the Chinese pronunciation of Christmas Eve sounds similar to the pronunciation of apples, this custom was commercially created.

November 11 is also the birthday of many famous people. If you'd like to know more, check Wiki.

1821 - Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky

1974 - Leonardo DiCaprio, actor

1989 - Reina Tanaka, singer (former LoVendoЯ, former Morning Musume.) 

1989 - Reina Tanaka, singer (former LoVendoЯ, former Morning Musume.)