November 11th is the Remembrance Day in Canada, and people in China also celebrate on the same day, but for what they call a Single’s Day, for super discounts on online shopping websites.

This year’s Remembrance Day is the first Single’s Day Taobao.com it faced right after it became public this September. The total sale broke the gate of a billion RMB within the first minute of November 11th in China.

“The finance industry need a disrupter, it needs a outsider to come in and carry out a transformation,” Mr. Jack Ma, the co-funder of Taobao.com, said. We cannot doubt his words because his unlikely ascent and the amazing sale number has already proved to the public his great success.

(Mr. Jack Ma   Alibaba, via Associated Press)

However, not all the online retailers selling through Taobao.com enjoyed the crazy shopping festival. As some of them said, they even sustain losses on that day in exchange of a large number of sale.

Higher the quantity of supply, higher the average variable cost. The artificial festival causes a “blowout” of sales in November and December in exchange of the unexpected low sale in those two months. In other words, this festival breaks the equilibrium of the market and artificially makes a illusion of a super thriving market environment.

“I would rather not having such festival.” One of the anonymous Taobao retailer said. What is the real cost of a Single’s Day? Only the sellers know.

Related Article

The Unlikely Ascent of Jack Ma, Alibaba’s Founder, Neil Gough and Alexandra Stevenson, May 7th 2014