Alibaba Group (NYSE: BABA) set a sales record this Singles Day, but that record was overshadowed by a plunge in the company's share price. The dip in share price comes from potential antitrust regulation and follows an IPO suspension of an Alibaba holding that similarly drove stock prices down.
Singles day, an unofficial Chinese holiday that celebrates bachelors is the biggest shopping day in the world, surpassing even Christmas in the United States. Last week, Alibaba launched an early-round of Singles Day sales, garnering billions of dollars in revenue in the first few hours of the sale.
On 11/11, the actual date for Singles Day, Alibaba once again made record sales. According to Alibaba, the company earned $56.42 billion in sales since its Singles Day event began on November 1. The $56.42 billion in sales translates to about 3 billion packages, up considerably from last year and double the average volume.
"We are probably going to be doubling last year's 11.11 or maybe even more than that and this really shows that consumption habits have really moved online, not just in first tier (cities) but across the entire country," said Jacob Cooke of WPIC, a firm that assists foreign companies with marketing to Chinese consumers.
Impressive sales figures aside, the day wasn't entirely rosy for the Chinese retail giant. Alibaba's share prices trended down last week after the Chinese government signaled that it might pass new antitrust regulations.
"Potential implementation of new antitrust regulations is negative for most major Internet companies, particularly in e-commerce and food delivery - although competition has already intensified with reduced market dominance across segments in recent years, which could be a mitigate," Morgan Stanley said in a statement.
The potential for new regulations comes after Alibaba faced a setback in the IPO of a brand formed by Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma, Ant Group. Ant Group's IPO was suspended after the Chinese government found issues with the company's ability to meet listing requirements.
Alibaba's stock slipped last Tuesday on the news of the potential antitrust regulation, following a previous 7.57% drop after the Ant Group IPO suspension.