Why Alibaba doesn't want to emphasise that US$17.8b Singles' Day sales figure

New York

ALIBABA Group Holding Ltd reported a whopping US$17.8 billion of sales during its online shopping bonanza Singles' Day. But it doesn't want you to focus on that number.

That's because billionaire chairman Jack Ma thinks pure e-commerce businesses are going to face tremendous challenges in the future, as online shopping becomes the new normal. While sales on Singles' Day grew 60 per cent to 91.2 billion yuan (S$18.9 billion) in 2015, the increase this year was about half that rate, leading some analysts to call the event a slight disappointment.

"It's highly unlikely we'll continue to grow at …