Singles Day, the huge Chinese — and increasingly global shopping day — reached its zenith over the weekend, but we may never exactly how big it was because of an ongoing Chinese government crackdown on the technology sector.

Rapacious capitalism with Chinese characteristics remains out of fashion, which means Alibaba and JD.com two of the country's – and the world's biggest e-commerce platforms – are playing their cards very close to their chest and not releasing numbers. (Likewise, Australian brands who have traditionally clocked huge sales on the day are keeping a low profile).

That didn't stop analysts at Syntun from estimating that "from 8:00 PM on October 31^st to 11:59 PM on November 11^th (JD.com started from 8:00 PM on October 23^rd ), the GMV of the major e-commerce platforms (only including traditional e-commerce platforms and livestreaming e-commerce platforms)  reached 1138.6 billion RMB, ($US 156.4bn) reflecting a year-on-year increase of 2.08 per cent."

Both Alibaba (which first popularised the day) and JD.com have been working to extend the event which began in 2009 into a month-long shopping bonanza, while also fighting off challenges from companies like Douyin and Pinduoduo who are attempting to offer Single's Day style discounts all year round (that loud humming just heard was a million retailers worldwide praying it never comes to pass).

However, neither Alibaba nor JD.com (nor Douyin or Pinduoduo for that matter) wants to run afoul of the Chinese government by sounding too successful. Jack Ma, Alibaba founder reportedly lost $30 billion and his crown as Asia's richest man after the regulatory crackdown according to Fortune. His crime was to vocalise his thoughts on the matter of government policies affecting his business. He also went missing for three months in 2021.

But the hints of something spectacular are there in the tea leaves (and Google Translate) if you look closely enough on the Chinese internet. 

For instance, JD.com put out a statement late Saturday saying transaction volumes, order volumes and the number of customers all reached new highs this year.

According to the company (and apologies for the quality of the translation): "JD.com's purchasing and selling live broadcast has become popular, and the total number of viewers of JD.com's purchasing and selling live broadcast has exceeded 380 million. “9 Yuan 9 Free Shipping”, “JD Ten Billion Subsidies”, and “JD Flash Sales” have created one incremental market for brands and merchants."

"Currently, more than 60 brands have sold more than 1 billion yuan, and nearly 20,000 brands have achieved transaction volume. The year-on-year increase was more than 3 times, and the transaction volume of new merchants increased by more than 5 times month-on-month."

Alibaba has been more circumspect, staying quiet on the performance on the day, although it was more active in the run-up to the event. An article on Alizila, its own digital newsroom claimed it was anticipating a billion consumers to participate in its sale (although the site was quiet on Alibaba's alleged hard-balling its merchants to deliver on the discount front.) The e-commerce giant claimed 80 million products would be available at their lowest prices this year.

The Alizila report noted that "During the promotion, Alibaba’s business-to-consumer marketplace Tmall is discounting RMB50 ($6.84) off every RMB300 spent (equal to a 17% discount) and consumer-to-consumer marketplace Taobao will knock off RMB30 for every RMB200 spent (or 15% off purchases)." 

A contemporaneous Reuters report from October quoted Chinese mercantile sources as saying "they were told to offer the best price of the year on Tmall or Taobao for the blockbuster shopping event, or risk losing the traffic and support given to event participants."

Heads down, likewise prices

Last year there were over 2,700 Australian brands listed on Alibaba alone and some of them have traditionally made out like bandits in China's huge shopping festival – Blackmores, Swisse, A2 and Bellamy's are keeping their heads down. Despite all the troubles in the Chinese and Australian trade relationship, the popularity of Australian health brands in China meant the market remained a robust one.

And it's not simply about trade with China. Singles Day sales are becoming more common in Australia with brands like Adidas, Samsonite, Net-a-porter, and Sephora offering discounts in the 25 to 40 per cent range.

Nor is Australia alone in catching the Singles Day fever which is becoming a regular feature in markets such as Singapore, Malaysia, and more recently Indonesia.

While the success of the strategy – and the indications it gives us about the health of Chinese consumer spending – may be opaque for now, we should be able to discern the impact and by extension the health of this year's event when publicly-listed Alibaba releases its Q4 results, most likely in February next year. 

The irony is no doubt not lost on Jack Ma, still Alibaba's biggest shareholder, but who by all accounts appears to have returned to his pre-Alibaba teaching roots, most recently as a visiting professor at the University of Tokyo.