Page 25 - ARUBA TODAY

BUSINESS Monday 13 noveMber 2017
A25

Chinese spend billions shopping online on ‘Singles Day’

By SAM McNEIL trillion by 2020, compared
Associated Press with 6 percent growth for
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese off-line retail.
consumers have spent bil- Singles Day was begun by
lions of dollars shopping Chinese college students
online for anything from in the 1990s as a version of
diapers to diamonds on Valentine’s Day for people
“Singles Day,” a day of pro- without romantic partners.
motions that has grown into Zhang Jingjing, a 30-year-
the world’s biggest e-com- old clerk for an engineer-
merce event. ing company, prepared
China’s largest e-com- for Singles Day by building
merce giant, Alibaba a shopping list on Alibaba’s
Group, said Sunday sales retail platform Tmall and
by the thousands of retail- watching for when prices
ers on its platforms for the dip. She then clicks and
24-hour period on Saturday snags a long-sought item
amounted to 168.3 billion at a discount.
yuan ($25.3 billion), setting “I have often emptied my
a new record for the com- ‘shopping cart’ on Singles
pany. It was 39 percent Day,” Zheng said. “I have
more than sales clocked been watching those
last year on Alibaba’s plat- goods for a long time and
forms of 120.7 billion yuan. Young children visit the headquarters for Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com during “Singles know very well their original
By comparison, American Day” in Beijing, China, Saturday, Nov. 11, 2017. Associated Press prices.”
shoppers last year spent The spending gives a boost
more than $5 billion shop- Adobe said. ($19 billion). China is already the world’s to the ruling Communist
ping online on Thanksgiving In China, Alibaba’s main ri- Starting at midnight Friday, largest e-commerce mar- Party’s efforts to nurture
Day and Black Friday, ac- val, online retailer JD.com, diamonds, Chilean frozen ket and the share of online consumer-based econom-
cording to Adobe, which did not provide a sales fig- salmon, tires, diapers, beer, shopping that makes up all ic growth and reduce reli-
tracks such data. Shoppers ure only for Saturday but shoes, handbags, and ap- consumer spending grows ance on trade and invest-
also spent $3.39 billion on said cumulative sales over pliances were shipped out every year. Boston Con- ment. China has 731 million
Cyber Monday last year, the 11-day period starting from JD.com’s distribution sulting Group forecasts on- internet users, up 6 percent
the largest single online on Nov. 1 through Saturday centers on trucks bound for line spending will rise by 20 from 2016, according to
shopping day in the U.S., totaled 127 billion yuan deliveries across China. percent a year, hitting $1.6 government statistics.q

Uber seals multibillion-dollar investment from Softbank

By TOM KRISHER cent stake in the company. sion at home and abroad, way for the SoftBank invest- turmoil and legal threats at
AP Auto Writer Uber currently is valued at while strengthening our ment, the person said. Uber.
DETROIT (AP) — Japanese $68.5 billion, but stock offers corporate governance,” Kalanick, who controls The deal allows early inves-
technology conglomer- will be based on a lower the statement said. three of 11 seats on the tors such as Benchmark to
ate SoftBank has reached valuation, so it’s unknown The move also clears the Uber board, agreed to al- sell at least some of their
a deal with Uber to invest just how much the total way for Uber, among the low a majority of board shares at a handsome
billions in the ride-hailing gi- deal multibillion-dollar deal most valuable tech firms in members to vote on any profit. But there will likely be
ant. will be worth, said the per- the world, to sell stock to future appointments he some wrangling over how
Uber Technologies Inc. con- son, who spoke on condi- the public. Under the deal, makes, according to the much shares are worth in
firmed the investment in a tion of anonymity because the initial public offering will person. Benchmark agreed the coming weeks.q
statement Sunday without details were not released. take place before the end to suspend a lawsuit against
giving details. Uber’s statement said it of 2019. Kalanick and drop it once
But a person briefed on the reached an agreement The long-awaited deal was Softbank gets through a
deal told The Associated with a consortium led by made public in October one-month tender offer pe-
Press that SoftBank Group SoftBank and Dragoneer but was delayed by a cor- riod that will start in about
will buy about $1 billion Investment Group. The deal porate governance and le- two weeks. Benchmark, a
worth of new Uber stock, is a vote of confidence in gal dispute between inves- major Silicon Valley ven-
then will offer to purchase the company’s potential tor Benchmark Capital and ture capital firm that was
shares from investors and and “will help fuel our in- ousted CEO Travis Kalanick. among Uber’s early back-
Uber employees with the vestments in technology Both sides ended their feud ers, alleged in the lawsuit
goal of reaching a 14 per- and our continued expan- on Sunday, clearing the that Kalanick covered up