Alibaba’s $56 billion Singles Day record eclipsed by 10% stock dive as China proposes a new guideline

Alibaba set a new sales record for the annual Singles Day shopping event, an accomplishment that was dominated by a close to 10% stock dive brought about by the proposed new Chinese antitrust guideline.

Singles Day is normally a 24-hour shopping event in China that sees huge discounts across a huge number of products on e-commerce platforms run by Alibaba, JD.com and different players. It produces a bigger number of sales than Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the U.S. consolidated.

However, this year, retailers JD.com and Alibaba have expanded the shopping event. It has run from Nov. 1 and will end at midnight on Nov. 12.

Alibaba said gross merchandise value (GMV), a figure that shows the complete value of orders over Alibaba’s shopping platforms, outperformed 372.3 billion yuan ($56.42 billion) as of 12:30 a.m. Beijing time on Wednesday. That is the total since the shopping event commenced on Nov. 1. That is more than the 268.4 billion yuan of GMV Alibaba recorded a year ago in a 24-hour period on Singles Day.

JD.com, Alibaba’s greatest opponent, said transaction volume on its platform was 200 billion yuan as of 12:09 a.m. Beijing time on Wednesday. Once more, that is a total from Nov. 1.

“We are probably going to be doubling last year’s 11.11 or maybe even more than that and this really shows that consumption habits have really moved online, not just in first tier (cities) but across the entire country,” Jacob Cooke, CEO of WPIC, an e-commerce tech and marketing firm that helps foreign brands sell in China, told CNBC.

In spite of the gigantic figures recorded by Alibaba and JD.com, both their share costs have taken a hammering.

That is on the grounds that the Chinese government has proposed new antitrust guidelines.

On Tuesday, Alibaba’s U.S.- listed shares shut down over 8% at $266.54, clearing off over $60 billion of significant worth in a day. The Chinese technology goliath’s Hong Kong-recorded stock shed 9.8% to close at 248.40 Hong Kong dollars on Wednesday.

JD.com’s U.S. shares shut over 5% lower on Tuesday, while its Hong Kong stock fell 9.2% to close at 300 Hong Kong dollars on Wednesday.

The State Administration for Market Regulation delivered draft decides on Tuesday that, unexpectedly, characterizes what establishes hostile to serious conduct. It covers territories including pricing, payment strategies, utilization of information to target customers.

“Potential implementation of new antitrust regulations is negative for most major Internet companies, particularly in e- commerce and food delivery – although competition has already intensified with reduced market dominance across segments in recent years, which could be a mitigant,” Morgan Stanley analysts said in an note published on Wednesday.

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