Alibaba’s $56 billion Singles Day record overshadowed by 8% stock plunge as China proposes new regulation

Alibaba set a new sales record for the annual Singles Day shopping event, a feat that was overshadowed by a 8% stock plunge caused by proposed new Chinese antitrust regulation.

Singles Day is typically a 24-hour shopping event in China that sees huge discounts across millions of products on e-commerce platforms run by Alibaba, JD.com and other players. It generates more sales than Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the U.S. combined.

But this year, retailers JD.com and Alibaba have extended the shopping event. It has run from Nov. 1 and will end at midnight on Nov. 12. Alibaba said gross merchandise value (GMV), a figure that shows the total value of orders across Alibaba’s shopping platforms, surpassed 372.3 billion yuan ($56.42 billion) as of 12:30 a.m. Beijing time on Wednesday. That is the total since the shopping event kicked off on Nov. 1. That is more than the 268.4 billion yuan of GMV Alibaba recorded last year in a 24-hour period on Singles Day.

JD.com, Alibaba’s biggest rival, said transaction volume on its platform was 200 billion yuan as of 12:09 a.m. Beijing time on Wednesday. Again, that is a total from Nov. 1.

Despite the massive figures recorded by Alibaba and JD.com, both their share prices have taken a hammering. That’s because the Chinese government has proposed new antitrust regulations. On Tuesday, Alibaba’s U.S.-listed shares closed down over 8% at $266.54, wiping off over $60 billion of value in a day. The Chinese technology giant’s Hong Kong-listed stock was also over 8% lower at around 11:26 a.m. local time on Wednesday.

JD.com’s U.S. shares closed over 5% lower on Tuesday, while its Hong Kong stock was down over 7% at around 11:26 a.m. local time Wednesday.

But both JD and Alibaba use Singles Day to attract new customers. The two companies have been making a push into so-called lower tier Chinese cities where e-commerce penetration is lower and spending power is weaker. The technology giants feel this is key to strong growth going forward.

Alibaba’s $56 billion Singles Day record overshadowed by 8% stock plunge as China proposes new regulation, CNBC, Nov 11