China just broke again the world’s record of online shopping event sales during the country’s mid-year 618 shopping fest with participation from major e-tailers that altogether raked in a total of USD 137 billion sales.
The figured dwarfed last year’s Single’s Day which pulled in USD 67.6 billion and is the second-largest online shopping festival so far by gross merchandise volume (GMV) in the world.
As a catalyst for post-epidemic consumption and economic recovery, this year’s 618 received much attention from both the merchants and the consumers: Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) recorded the highest search of the term “618” in five years, while online shopping sites gave out lavish discounts in hope of recovering declining online sales from the past few months.
Read more: Chinese shoppers break sales records during 618 online festival
Originally started by JD.com (NASDAQ: JD) as an attempt to emulate the success of Alibaba’s (NYSE: BABA; HKEX: 9988) Singles’ Day shopping bonanza, the 618 festival saw for the first time Alibaba’s Tmall’s platform collecting a higher GMV compared with JD.com.
The event also saw the participation of short-video apps like Douyin and Kuaishou, as video apps and live streaming are playing an increasingly significant role in online shopping, a trend attested by growing sales generated via livestreaming platforms.
