Smartphone brands break records in first hours of Singles’ Day shopping festival
- Oppo said sales in the first minute outstripped what it sold in a full day last year
Defying an overall sales decline in the world’s largest smartphone market, Chinese handset vendors have taken advantage of the frenzy surrounding the world’s biggest online sales festival to boost sales as local consumers unlock their spending to take advantage of the low prices.
All major Chinese smartphone brands reported stellar sales figures in the first hours of this year’s November 11 Singles’ Day shopping spree.
Huawei Technologies, China’s largest smartphone brand, said sales on its self-run Huawei online mall took only 1 minute to exceed the full day November 11 sales recorded last year, while its budget brand Honor was the No 1 seller on all three major e-commerce platforms, Tmall, JD.com and Suning.com, in the first two hours.
Vivo said sales on its own platform were 3.75 times more in the first two hours this year compared to last year while sister brand Oppo said sales in the first minute outstripped what it sold on its website in a full day last year.
Xiaomi, China’s fourth largest smartphone vendor, said sales on its official Tmall store broke the 1 billion yuan (US$143 million) mark after one hour, and were up 22 per cent over the same hourly period last year.
Tmall is a business-to-consumer marketplace operated by Alibaba, parent company of the South China Morning Post.
