How much is Asia defining e-commerce? November 11 provides a clue.
It might be known as Armistice Day in the west, but in many Chinese-speaking countries, 11.11 is increasingly known as 光棍节, or literally “fluorescent light tube festival” — that is, Singles’ Day. The Chinese idiomatic expression for a “third wheel” is a “light bulb,” or 电灯泡, someone who spoils the romantic mood. How much more of a spoiler can you get than four fluorescent light tubes, represented by four consecutive number ones?
Cue retail therapy to the rescue. In recent years, November 11 has become a huge day for e-marketers in China who stage one-day flash sales aimed at singles who can buy themselves gifts—or for those they are trying to impress. In terms of revenue, it now rivals American annual shopping bonanzas Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.
You can see this shift in Google search trends. We compared global Google searches for 光棍节 and Armistice Day, and found that since 2005, searches for 光棍节 have steadily outstripped searches for the latter.
And it should be noted that China’s not the only country reshaping the Web with grand online shopping festivals. India went one better than 11/11: in 2012 it held the 12/12/12 shopping festival. Successful followups have helped drive Indian search volumes in online shopping to levels far beyond what it is in the U.S.
Since the numbers in this chart don’t represent absolute search volumes, this doesn’t necessarily mean that there are more e-commerce searches in India than in the U.S. or U.K. What it does mean is that in India, a higher proportion of netizens are searching for e-commerce than in those two Western countries.
It might be known as Armistice Day in the west, but in many Chinese-speaking countries, 11.11 is increasingly known as 光棍节, or literally “fluorescent light tube festival” — that is, Singles’ Day. The Chinese idiomatic expression for a “third wheel” is a “light bulb,” or 电灯泡, someone who spoils the romantic mood. How much more of a spoiler can you get than four fluorescent light tubes, represented by four consecutive number ones?
Cue retail therapy to the rescue. In recent years, November 11 has become a huge day for e-marketers in China who stage one-day flash sales aimed at singles who can buy themselves gifts—or for those they are trying to impress. In terms of revenue, it now rivals American annual shopping bonanzas Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.
You can see this shift in Google search trends. We compared global Google searches for 光棍节 and Armistice Day, and found that since 2005, searches for 光棍节 have steadily outstripped searches for the latter.
And it should be noted that China’s not the only country reshaping the Web with grand online shopping festivals. India went one better than 11/11: in 2012 it held the 12/12/12 shopping festival. Successful followups have helped drive Indian search volumes in online shopping to levels far beyond what it is in the U.S.
Since the numbers in this chart don’t represent absolute search volumes, this doesn’t necessarily mean that there are more e-commerce searches in India than in the U.S. or U.K. What it does mean is that in India, a higher proportion of netizens are searching for e-commerce than in those two Western countries.
very good
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