Singles Day, the prefab shopping holiday created by Alibaba in 2009, saw just 5% sales growth over 2021, experts polled by CNN estimated, compared to a 15.5% gain in 2021, as the inflation-fueled ecommerce slowdown and fresh COVID-19 lockdowns in China acted as a drag on results.
Alibaba set a new record on the 10th annual Singles Day by reaching more than $30.8 billion or 213.5 billion yuan in gross merchandise value (GMV) in 24 hours on Sunday. However growth is slowing and some observers question the GMV metric, while some Chinese consumers are less than enthusiastic.
Jack Ma, founder and chairman of Chinese ecommerce behemoth Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., announced he will step down in September 2019, to be succeeded by Alibaba Group CEO and chairman Daniel Zhang. Ma will continue as executive chairman during the transition period.