Number of active shoppers on Singles' Day in China 2023, by e-commerce platform

On November 11 of 2023, around 532 million people shopped on Alibaba’s C2C e-commerce platform Taobao. The social e-commerce platform Pinduoduo received approximately 397.67 million active shoppers that day, a sharp decline from the previous year.

Is China’s Singles’ Day comparable to Black Friday?

While U.S. shoppers battle through crowds of equally eager bargain hunters on days like Black Friday, many Chinese consumers are content to complete their annual shopping sprees online, having their orders delivered at doors instead. Compared to Black Friday, the Singles' Day sales in China might be less physical, but undoubtedly, they are similarly intense. In 2021, the e-commerce giant Alibaba recorded a GMV of 84.5 billion U.S. dollars during the Singles' Day sales in China, nearly seven times more compared to the global sales value of Amazon's Prime Day.

A day not only for singles

Singles' Day was an unofficial holiday celebrated by singles in China. The holiday lands on November 11 every year, as 1 represents single. Since Alibaba started its first online shopping festival in 2009, Singles’ Day has become the most-known online shopping festival among Chinese consumers. Since 2020, the Singles' Day sales have morphed into a three-week-long sales event, starting from the end of October.