China’s Singles’ Day has lost much of its hype and enthusiasm. As the curtain falls on this year’s festival, now a five-week event, value-driven consumers and global ambitions have redefined the world’s largest online shopping event.

Shoppers shift from frenzied to indifferent

The longest-ever Singles’ Day shopping festival got off to a quick start for Alibaba. Just 1 hour after the checkout period began on October 20, 80 brands surpassed RMB 100 million ($13.96 million) in gross merchandise value. More than 30,000 brands doubled their first-hour sales via Taobao and Tmall, driven by beauty and sportswear brands.

The 2025 event, expanded to five weeks from last year’s 28 days, generated RMB 1.695 trillion ($236.60 billion) in sales, representing a 17.5% YoY increase, per Syntun. But this year’s growth was relatively muted compared with 2024’s 27%. And the gradual extension of the shopping period—from a one-day event in 2009—and the addition of other newer shopping events throughout the year have dampened consumer excitement. Still, sales in China far exceeded our 2025 forecast for both US Black Friday ($12.45 billion) and Amazon Prime Day worldwide ($20.62 billion).