Gini Olom

Senin, 11 November 2019

Singles' Day sales: US$1 billion in 67 seconds and other numbers to know - CTV News

Singles' Day in the world’s most populous country has become a mammoth marketing event for China's e-commerce businesses that have turned it into the world’s biggest online shopping extravaganza.

Singles' Day, which originated on university campuses in Nanjing, China in the 1990s, became an annual shopping bonanza after Alibaba, China’s biggest e-commerce retailer, made it into an event a decade ago.

This year's sales surpassed last year’s record, with two of the country's largest online retailers reporting combined sales of more than US$63 billion, even before final numbers were reported. The eye-popping figures make Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the U.S. seem somewhat anemic and humdrum by comparison. Alibaba posted live updates on its website and on Twitter, but for the very keen, the company also provided a real-time sales counter.

Singles' Day by the numbers:

1. Singles' Day takes place on November 11, because the number one and the date, 11/11, looks like a single person.

2. Alibaba said sales by merchants on its platforms totalled 268.44 billion yuan (US$38.38 billion) by midnight local time, handily surpassing last year's total of US$30.8 billion.

3. Alibaba said the number of delivery orders exceeded 1.042 billion in 18 hours and 31 minutes; surpassing the 2018 total.

4. Alibaba said sales exceeded US$1 billion just 1 minute and 7 seconds after midnight on November 11, and surpassed US$10 billion after 29 minutes and 45 seconds.

5. In the U.S. in 2018, Black Friday brought in US$6.2 billion last year, and US$7.9 billion on Cyber Monday, according to Adobe Analytics.

6. Alibaba rival, JD.com, reported sales of 179.4 billion yuan ($25.6 billion) by mid-afternoon, according to The Associated Press.

7. More than 200,000 brands from over 200 countries and regions were expected to participate in this year's event; only 27 brands participated in 2009.

8. A once-informal day, a countdown gala leading up to Singles' Day that included a performance from Taylor Swift was broadcast on nearly 30 online streaming platforms and TV channels.

9. Online shopping makes up 19.5 per cent of Chinese consumer spending, compared with about 11 per cent for American consumers, according to The Associated Press.

10. Alipay said it set a record on Singles' Day in 2017 for most payment transactions, processing 256,000 payment transactions per second, just 5 minutes into Singles' Day; 1.48 billion transactions were ultimately processed over the course of 24 hours.

11. China’s State Post Bureau is expected to handle 2.8 billion packages from Nov 11 to 18, according to state-run press agency Xinhua.

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November 12, 2019 at 01:12AM

Open Text acquires cloud-based security firm Carbonite - The Globe and Mail

Waterloo, Ont.-based software company Open Text Corp. has agreed to buy the cloud-based security firm Carbonite Inc. for US$1.42-billion, including debt.

The deal will value the Boston-based company at US$23 a share, a 25-per-cent premium over Friday’s closing price on Nasdaq. But that price also represents a 22-per-cent discount from Carbonite’s US$29.45 share price last February, just before it purchased the Colorado cybersecurity company Webroot Inc., for US$618.5-million, which caused analysts to raise concerns about Carbonite’s debt load. Open Text said it would make the purchase with cash and its line of credit, and expects it to close in 90 days.

Open Text has become one of Canada’s largest software companies through regular mergers and acquisitions, focusing largely on business-to-business software with an increasing emphasis on the cloud. Its suite of services for enterprise businesses includes customer-management software, process automation and cybersecurity.

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Carbonite, named after the impenetrable fictional substance used to trap the character Han Solo in the Star Wars film The Empire Strikes Back, purports to make its clients’ data similarly impenetrable with secure backups. It focuses on small-and-medium-sized businesses as well as professional consumers – target markets to which Open Text hopes to extend its broader suite of services.

“We think that is a great route to market,” Open Text chief executive officer Mark Barrenechea said in an interview. He added that buying Carbonite would also further bolster its security offerings for businesses’ “endpoints” – connected devices ranging from mobile devices to connected sensors in industrial machines. Steve Munford, Carbonite’s chair and interim CEO, was not available for an interview.

Open Text announced the purchase before markets opened Monday. Its Toronto-listed shares opened up 3.1 per cent, at $56.69. Carbonite’s Nasdaq-listed shares shot up 24.4 per cent on the news, to $22.89.

Analyst Gabriel Leung of Beacon Securities Ltd. said it is a good acquisition for Open Text, highlighting the recurring revenues it would bring in from 300,000 small-and-medium-sized businesses and eight million professional users.

Despite its continued acquisition-focused growth, investors have become frustrated in recent months with Open Text’s slower organic growth. When the company reported negligible organic revenue in the quarter ending in June of this year and said its fourth-quarter 2019 organic revenue would be in the low single digits, its shares fell 9 per cent.

Mr. Barrenechea said the Carbonite purchase fits into Open Text’s “total growth strategy,” not just through the value of the acquisition but through its own potential organic revenue growth, which the CEO said would be in the low single digits.

Open Text’s largest acquisition came in 2016 when it bought Dell Technologies Inc.’s enterprise content division for US$1.62-billion. The company has since kept up its M&A strategy with smaller buys. In October 2018, it announced it would buy the Atlanta-area data-management company Liaison Technologies Inc. for US$310-million. And in February, it revealed that it would spend US$75-million on the Colorado legal-tech company Catalyst Repository Systems Inc.

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The company did not disclose the cash value for the Carbonite transaction, but said in its most recent quarterly report that it had US$1-billion cash and a US$750-million line of credit for acquisitions. Mr. Barrenechea said that despite the US$1.42-billion value of the Carbonite purchase, he would not rule out further near-term acquisitions.

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November 11, 2019 at 09:10PM

Trump's Latest Trade War Comment Puts Oil Prices Under Pressure - OilPrice.com

Oil prices were down early on Monday, as global markets brace for protracted talks in the U.S.-China trade war after optimism about an imminent rollback of tariffs faded.

At 11:14 a.m. EDT on Monday, WTI Crude was down 0.49 percent at US$56.96, and Brent Crude was down 0.18 percent at US$62.40.

Over the weekend, U.S. President Donald Trump appeared to dismiss reports of the imminent lifting of tariffs and breakthrough in talks. This sent the oil market down on Monday, as participants fret about the implications for global trade, economic growth, and, as a result, global oil demand growth.

The trade talks with China are moving along “very nicely,” President Trump told reporters on Saturday.

“We have to make the right deal for the farmers, manufacturers, for everybody. And if we don’t make that right deal, we’re not going to make a deal,” President Trump said, referring to “incorrect reporting” while asked if he wants to roll back some of the tariffs.

“I’d like to make a deal, but it’s got to be the right deal. China very much wants to make a deal. They’re having the worst year they’ve had in 57 years. Their supply chain is all broken, like an egg,” President Trump noted.

Analysts at Commerzbank expect the trade war headlines and potential breakthroughs or stalemates in talks to dictate the direction of oil prices over the next few days and weeks.

Chinese data during the weekend showed continued weakness in Chinese economic growth. China’s producer price index (PPI) slumped the most in October since July 2016, while car sales fell for the 16^th month in a row. Both sets of data suggest that China’s economic growth continues to slow down, which, combined with an overall global economic growth slowdown, doesn’t bode well for oil demand growth, and consequently, oil prices.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:

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November 11, 2019 at 11:30PM

Keystone pipeline restarted after breach in North Dakota - Business News - Castanet.net

Photo: North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality

The owner of the Keystone pipeline says the line has returned to service after a breach that leaked an estimated 1.4 million litres of oil in northeastern North Dakota late last month.

TC Energy Corporation says the move follows the approval of its repair and restart plan by the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, which ordered the line shut until the Canadian company completed corrective action.

The company says it will operate the pipeline at a reduced pressure with a gradual increase in the volume of crude oil moving through the system.

The line, which began operating in 2011, is designed to carry crude oil from Alberta across Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and through North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri on the way to refineries in Patoka, Ill. and Cushing, Okla.

The spill affected about 2,090 square meters of land near Edinburg, N.D.

TC Energy says it continues to work closely with the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality as it investigates the cause of the breach.

"We appreciate the cooperation and support from local officials, emergency response personnel and commissioners in Walsh County, as well as the landowner who has granted permission to access land for assessment, repair and clean-up activities," TC Energy said in a statement on Sunday.

"We also want to recognize the continued efforts of our crews, contractors and businesses in the community for their around-the-clock support, which has allowed us to respond quickly and safely to this event."

The company adds it is communicating plans to its customers and will continue working closely with them as it begins to return to normal operating conditions.

It said on its website that it has observed no significant impacts to the environment.

The pipeline spill and shutdown come as the company seeks to build the US$8-billion Keystone XL pipeline that would carry oilsands oil from Alberta to refineries in Texas.

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November 11, 2019 at 09:49PM

Hong Kong's Hang Seng has its worst day in months as violence escalates - CNN

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Hong Kong's Hang Seng has its worst day in months as violence escalates CNNView full coverage on Google News

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November 11, 2019 at 05:14PM

Singles Day 2019's Alibaba sales break records - CBS News

"Singles Day" may sound lonely, but those taking part are finding some togetherness in what amounts to the world's largest annual shopping spree, with more than $1 billion spent in just over a minute in an eye-popping start to Monday's event.

More than halfway through the unofficial Chinese shopping holiday known as Singles Day, sales volume had already blown past last year's total, according to Alibaba, China's version of Amazon, which showed the running tally live on its web site.

In terms of money spent, China's one-day festival of consumption has already eclipsed predictions of Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday — combined. Adobe Analytics, the retail data tracking service, estimates that the long U.S. holiday shopping weekend this year will generate total retail sales of $29 billion — that's less than the $36 billion generated more than half-way through this year's 24-hour Singles Day sales period, which last year fueled $30 billion in sales.

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Alibaba reported selling $1 billion worth of goods sold in 1 minute and 8 seconds. It sold $12 billion in the first hour, the company said in a statement. China's biggest online direct retailer, JD.com, reported sales of $25.6 billion by mid-afternoon.

Retailers offered discounts on products from smartphones to craft beer to health care packages.

"Yesterday night, I was browsing past 11 p.m. Many of my friends around me were staying up till 2 a.m. to buy stuff," said Zhu Yirun, a graduate student in Beijing.

What's morphed into an astounding revenue-generating enterprise started out among Chinese university students holding parties to celebrate being single in 1993, only to be co-opted by Alibaba 16 years later. The China-based retailing giant marked down merchandise in a marketing campaign that had other e-commerce companies soon doing the same. A decade later, the event now gives Amazon Prime Day a run for its money.

Workers sort international parcels at a cross-border e-commerce industrial park ahead of the Singles Day online shopping festival in Hefei, Anhui, province, China, on November 2, 2019. Reuters

This year, more than 200,000 brands are participating, Alibaba said. The company hyped the event with a "Countdown Gala" featuring a performance by pop singer Taylor Swift Sunday night at a Shanghai stadium.

Taylor Swift Confirmed Among Acts for Alibaba's #Double11 Countdown Gala. https://t.co/OEXXQI1Avh pic.twitter.com/iP0BV76OF9
— Alibaba Group (@AlibabaGroup) October 28, 2019

American companies are also getting in on the act. Nearly a quarter of U.S. retailers plan to run promotions for Singles Day, according to Adobe, which surveyed more than 400 U.S. retailers with annual sales in excess of $500,000.

That said, U.S.-China trade tensions could ding American brands taking part this year, concludes another study by global consultancy AlixPartners.

Chinese consumers plan to spend 54% more this year than in 2018, but 78% of Chinese surveyed said they would think twice about buying U.S. products due to loyalty to their country, AlixPartners found in a recent survey of more than 2,000 Chinese consumers.

E-commerce has grown quickly in China, the result of a lack of traditional retailing networks as well as government efforts to encourage internet use on official channels. The nation has 800 million people online.

Monday marks Alibaba's first Singles Day since its founder, Jack Ma, stepped down as chairman in September. He remains as a member of the Alibaba Partnership, a 36-member group with the right to nominate a majority of the company's board of directors.

-- The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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https://www.cbsnews.com/news/singles-day-2019-alibaba-sales-break-records-on-24-hour-shopping-holiday/

2019-11-11 15:54:00Z
CAIiEHmrg8t6gHYWqP9NNJ_C0PgqGQgEKhAIACoHCAowyNj6CjDyiPICMO-LxQU

China: Alibaba Singles' Day sales on course for new record - Deutsche Welle

China's biggest online shopping festival, Singles' Day, got underway at Sunday midnight local time, with e-commerce giant Alibaba saying 84 billion yuan ($12 billion) worth of goods were sold in the first hour, compared with 69 billion yuan last year.

It took only 63 minutes and 59 seconds for sales to hit 100 billion yuan ($14.3 billion). The first billion yuan was spent in the first 68 seconds, according to Alibaba.

Singles' Day has broken sales records every year in its 10-year history. Total sales last year amounted to more than $30 billion, which beats the revenue taken by US retailers on Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.

A new record is expected again this year, despite a slowing economy partly due to the US-China trade war.

However, the 27% sales growth from 2017 to 2018 was the lowest since the event began in 2009, leading Alibaba, with its main e-commerce platforms Taobao and Tmall, to search for new ways to stimulate consumers' purchasing desires this time round.

Environmental problems

The event is named after the calendar date 11/11, with the four ones seen as symbolizing the state of being single. It started out on Chinese campuses as a celebration of the unmarried or unpartnered lifestyle.

This year, the 24-hour shopping fest kicked off with a performance by US pop star Taylor Swift.

Singles' Day is taking place this year for the first time without Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma, who resigned as chairman in September.

In the past, the event has been criticized by environmentalist groups for the large amount of packaging waste generated by the online sales.

ed, tj/stb (Reuters, dpa)

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November 11, 2019 at 04:14PM