Originally started by Chinese university students as an anti-Valentines Day where single people were encouraged to buy themselves gifts, “Singles Day” on November 11 (11/11) has exploded in popularity over the past five years to become China’s equivalent of Black Friday with their Amazon/eBay clone, Alibaba, leading the charge.
I heard about it last year but forgot about it until I hit Alibaba’s small order specialty store, AliExpress, looking for cheap chargers for Shea’s new iPhone 6. Most items on the site were 15-50% off for Singles Day and they also offered a further 10% if you ordered $100 worth of stuff.
So a few toys and trinkets later, I’ve got a head start on my Christmas shopping, a weird connection to a unique holiday in a foreign culture, and a nagging sense of guilt at promoting globalization/Chinese totalitarianism/junk culture. 🙁
[Edit: Here’s an interesting recap from AliExpress.]