Today is Singles Day in China, the Alibaba version of Amazon’s Prime Day — and, from the sound of things, Apple has done pretty darn well out of it.
This year’s 24-hour shopping event has surpassed last year’s 213.5 billion yuan (more than $30 billion) record for gross merchandise value sold. The iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max were reportedly two of the top-selling items during Singles Day.
2019 marks the 11th Singles Day event. It’s a 24-hour period, held every November 11, in which Alibaba offers big discounts on its e-commerce site. Last year, Singles Day exceeded spending by consumers on both Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
A CNBC report notes that:
“Amid the ongoing U.S.-China trade war, there was some concern that American brands could get the cold shoulder from Chinese consumers. But this was not the case. The U.S. was the second country by GMV in terms of countries selling to China.”
China has been a big cause of Apple instability in recent times. Some reports have suggested that Chinese customers and companies were boycotting American smartphones, such as those made by Apple.
However, Tim Cook said during the most recent earnings call that things are starting to stabilize. Cook noted that, “trade tensions [are] less” than they have been recently. He also said that Apple’s new devices have been “extremely well received” in the country.
From the sound of things, that’s very much proven to be the case here.
Source: CNBC
