
China's mega shopping event sold more in 24 hours than Amazon sells in 2 months - randomerr
https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/china-s-mega-shopping-event-singles-day-sold-more-24-n1079846
======
hourislate
I figure they sold so much because they are told to shop and being good
citizens they followed orders. In the USA people can shop at their leisure.
There is no demand they celebrate being single so they deserve to treat
themselves on a particular day of the year.

A better indicator would be yearly sales. One most also take into account the
AMZN was not allowed to compete in China. It is the reason Alibaba exists,
Jack Ma is no genius,

~~~
yorwba
It's like Black Friday/Cyber Monday/any other "shopping holiday". There are
discounts, so some people try to move costly one-time purchases and whatever
else they happen to need at the time to that one date. Others buy more than
they need because they fear missing out on the discounts (classic couponing
addiction). Of course there's also a "buy nothing, save 100%" meme. It has
nothing to do with being an obedient citizen. If you think Chinese people will
do everything they're told to, you need to adjust your worldview a lot.

Amazon does compete in China [https://www.amazon.cn/](https://www.amazon.cn/)
but the ads I have seen put them in the "foreign luxury goods" niche, where
the market is smaller and their competition are other sellers of foreign
goods, like proxy buyers. Unsurprisingly, Amazon doesn't have a lot of
experience sourcing the kinds of stuff most Chinese people can afford. What
Amazon sells internationally is largely the same as in America; what Alibaba
sells internationally is largely the same as in China. Neither is a great
recipe for capturing a foreign market with different needs.

