BEIJING--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Alibaba Group (NYSE:BABA) today announced it will ring the New York Stock Exchange Opening Bell on Wednesday, November 11, 2015 in celebration of its annual 11.11 Global Shopping Festival. The company will ring the Opening Bell remotely from the Water Cube (National Aquatics Center) in Beijing, where it will host this year’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival.
“Alibaba is honored to ring the Opening Bell from Beijing in celebration of our 11.11 Global Shopping Festival,” said Jack Ma, executive chairman of Alibaba Group. “This day is not just the largest shopping day in the world, but a demonstration of the scale and impact of our global ecosystem. This festival is a thermometer for the Chinese economy, allowing the world to see the consumption potential of China and the future opportunities for SMEs around the world.”
Jack Ma will participate in the ceremony joined by Daniel Zhang, CEO of Alibaba Group, and Tom Farley, president of NYSE Group. They will also be joined by eight honored guests who have been recognized by Alibaba for their extraordinary acts of philanthropy, environmental awareness and community building.
The 11.11 Global Shopping Festival, also referred to as “Singles Day,” began in 2009 with participation from just 27 merchants to raise awareness around online shopping in China. In the six years since its inception, it has become the largest shopping day in history, generating USD 9.3 billion of GMV settled through Alipay over a 24-hour period in 2014. This year Alibaba is focused on furthering its mission and globalization strategy, with more than 50,000 brands and merchants participating in the upcoming event, including over 10,000 international brands from 25 countries. The company is also enhancing its omni-channel and mobile commerce offerings with participation from more than 1,000 retail brands that operate 180,000 brick-and-mortar stores in 330 cities across China.
The NYSE Opening Bell ceremony will begin at 9:26a.m. Eastern Time, and a live feed of the event can be found at www.livestream.com/NYSE. Photos and video of the NYSE Bell Ringing Ceremony will also be available, courtesy of the NYSE, on Facebook (NYSE) and Twitter (@NYSE and @NYSECam).
For more information on Alibaba’s 2015 11.11 Global Shopping Celebration, please follow the Alibaba Group official Twitter account at www.twitter.com/alibabagroup, visit corporate news blog Alizila, or go to alibabagroup.com/en/ir/home.
For background on Alibaba’s business model, strategy, and products and services, please visit Alibaba Defined.
About Alibaba Group
Alibaba Group’s mission is to make it easy to do business anywhere. The company is the largest online and mobile commerce company in the world in terms of gross merchandise volume. Founded in 1999, the company provides the fundamental technology infrastructure and marketing reach to help businesses leverage the power of the Internet to establish an online presence and conduct commerce with hundreds of millions of consumers and other businesses.
Alibaba Group's major businesses include:
- Taobao Marketplace (www.taobao.com), China's largest online shopping destination
- Tmall.com (www.tmall.com), China's largest third-party platform for brands and retailers
- Juhuasuan (www.juhuasuan.com), China's most popular online group buying marketplace
- Alitrip (www.alitrip.com), a leading online travel booking platform
- AliExpress (www.aliexpress.com), a global online marketplace for consumers to buy directly from China
- Alibaba.com (www.alibaba.com), China's largest global online wholesale platform for small businesses
- 1688.com (www.1688.com), a leading online wholesale marketplace in China
- AliCloud (www.alicloud.com), a provider of cloud computing services to businesses and entrepreneurs
