China 101
Singles' Day
双十一
The November 11 shopping festival that Alibaba turned from an unofficial student holiday into the largest retail event in the world.
Singles' Day falls on November 11 (11/11, four ones, hence singles). It began in the 1990s as a tongue-in-cheek anti-Valentine's celebration among Chinese university students. In 2009, Alibaba repurposed it as an online sales event on Taobao and Tmall, and it grew into the biggest shopping festival on the planet, dwarfing Black Friday and Cyber Monday in gross merchandise volume.
The festival is now a weeks-long season of presales, coupons, livestream selling, and complex discount math that shoppers complain about and participate in anyway. Every major platform, including JD.com, Pinduoduo, and Douyin, runs its own version.
For UnboxChina readers, Singles' Day matters because it is where new Chinese brands and product trends often debut at scale, and its sales rankings are a useful map of what Chinese consumers actually want.