Singles' Day spat shows Alibaba's jealous side

Hong Kong

BRANDS are discovering a possessive side to Alibaba. The Chinese e-commerce giant's annual "Singles' Day" event has become a national shopping festival. Now smaller JD.com has accused its US$210 billion rival of bullying merchants into using only its platform. Market power may be good for driving sales, but not if it prompts regulators to intervene.

Six years ago, Alibaba and less than three dozen brands launched an online shopping promotion offering discounts on Singles' Day, a Nov 11 Chinese response to Valentine's Day. Today, the "11.11" Shopping Festival is the world's largest e-commerce event. Last year, Chinese shoppers spent a whopping US$9.3 billion on Alibaba's platforms that day, accounting for just over 2 per cent of the value of goods sold via the company's websites in that fiscal year.