South African merchants join 'Double 11' festival
By Li Zhiwei
People's Daily app
1540677361000

Double 11.JPG

SA President Cyril Ramaphosa and Chinese e-commerce magnate Jack Ma promote South African-made products during the inauguration of South Africa’s Investment Conference October 26, 2018. 

Johannesburg (People’s Daily) – The South Africa Investment Conference kicked off Friday in Johannesburg, South Africa, with 1,000 delegates and business leaders in attendance for the inaugural conference.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced during the opening gala that the conference had already secured investments totaling R290 billion.

Chinese e-commerce magnate Jack Ma was on hand as a special guest invited to promote the upcoming “Double 11” shopping tmall.com carnival.

Ramaphosa announced earlier that South African merchants would participate in the annual Chinese online shopping festival, adding that Chinese consumers could show greater interest in South African products.

Ramaphosa introduced the “Double 11” consumer event to guests during Friday’s opening event. He also announced plans to record a video that would invite Chinese consumers to buy South African products.

The South African president said the cooperation with Alibaba would also provide younger generations with more training opportunities.

According Jack Ma, Alibaba will focus on training locals, promoting South African products, and sharing inclusive technology.

During the Double 11 shopping carnival, handmade South African items will be sold on the tmall platform.  

The Double 11 shopping carnival is a “Bachelor’s Day Promotion” event.

November 11th has become a special day in recent years. Identified by its four number one’s (11/11), the date is commonly known as “Bachelor’s Day.”

Young people celebrate the day by throwing bachelor parties where singles can meet or simply just have fun. Some even choose to end singlehood and propose marriage to their loved one.

In 2009, Alibaba held the first Double 11 Shopping Festival on Taobao.com, storming the online shopping platform. Three years later, 2012's Bachelor’s Day began with more than 10,000 businesses cooperating with e-commerce sites, and this year both are poised to rock the shopping festival.

Double 11 is a special occasion for Chinese shoppers and has become the largest 24-hour online shopping event in the world. It is already 18 times greater than Amazon Prime Day and 2.5 times bigger than Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.

During last year’s Double 11, Alibaba sold $25.3 billion worth of merchandise.

This year’s online extravaganza will see participating merchants from different countries.

Less than two weeks away, Indonesian President Joko Widodo announced he too would make a video for Double 11.  

According to a Rwandan coffee merchant, when he began selling coffee on the Chinese e-commerce platform, his sales volume for just one day surpassed previous yearly totals.