Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma has said its $38 billion (£29.6 billion) Singles Day event “hasn’t even reached my expectation” despite breaking records. The event, which took place earlier this week, raked in $1 billion in the first 68 seconds of trading, and saw its gross merchandise value (GMV) rise 26 per cent on last year to reach staggering figures.
However Ma, who left the company he founded in September, said that the event came short of his expectations, and blamed hot weather and the fact it fell on a Monday as reasons for its unsatisfactory performance.
Speaking to Chinese media, Ma added that he hoped next year ‘the country will give everyone a half-day off’. – This comes as Alibaba gets poised to carry out a $13.4 billion (£10.5 billion) listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, after gaining approval for what would be this year’s biggest listing earlier this week.
Despite winning approval, the increasingly violent protests have made its listing complicated, with even senior police stating that Hong Kong is on the brink of total collapse. Yesterday it kicked off a week-long campaign to sell 500 million shares to investors, with the final pricing set for November 20.
