China's single day

1. Fact

The Chinas Single day is a Chinese event that take place every year on November 11th since 1990.

This event exists in response of the Valentin’s day. It’s the days of single person.

This date has been creating by Alibaba, an online company who sale all types of products. During the double 11, the company doubles its turnover.

She organizes a countdown at midnight and records the entire turnover in real time at a giant screen.

During this day, at midnight, a lot of discounts appear on the website. In 2016 more 18 billion of USD has been spend in China. It’s more than black Friday or Cybermonday in USA. That is the most important sale increase of the word for this type of event. Mei Xinyu, ministry of commerce researcher explains that China’s model for consumption was the united states. Since the creation of this event, the roles have changed.

Most people buy on impulse at this date. The journalist interview Luc Xing an online buyer. He says every item he buys that day are useless. He doesn’t even open all the packages he gets. He explains that he only consumes online because he’s lazy.

1. Consequences

This event has consequences for companies of transport, for the planet and for the consumers.

First, Step Vaessen, a journalist explain that companies of transport are not prepared to handle such a large volume of parcels. Employees must work very hard and work overtime during this event. 650 million of orders has been passed last year and may increase for next years.

China’s single day have a significant impact on the environment. According to a study by green peace, this event produced 258 tons of CO2 because of transport of packages and waste management explain a member of the association. The environmental impact is equivalent to 1,5 million trees felled. In addition, companies tend to overwrap packages, which greatly increases environmental impact and wastes. Most consumers are unaware of this problem.

For the consumers, china’s single day and online shopping increases the isolation of the population. Luc Jing explains that he no longer goes out t consume in brick-and-mortar shops.

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