Singles’ Day in China — November 11 — is about making shopping a number one activity. This year for Alibaba — China’s biggest ecommerce platform — orders exceeded a record $56bn in the morning alone. Normally, Alibaba’s share price would have reflected that retail frenzy. Instead, they fell 10 per cent on Wednesday.
That decline reflects a reaction to Chinese regulators’ plans to create a new normal for local tech giants. Beijing’s first attempt to define anti-competitive behaviour in the tech sector threatens the core business models of its biggest names, including Tencent, Baidu and Alibaba.
Certainly, Alibaba has much to lose. Then again, there is no doubt of market concentration. Alibaba has nearly 60 per cent of the local ecommerce market. Together with smaller rival JD.com that dominance rises to a nearly three-quarters share.