Qiu Hao and Guan Yiwen: All unnecessary expenses eventually become part of the product price.
On November 9, 2016, at the 290,000-square-meter Shenzhen Universiade Center, the final rehearsal for Tmall's Double 11 Gala was in full swing. The next day, international stars from around the world—Kobe Bryant, David and Victoria Beckham, Thomas Müller, OneRepublic, Scarlett Johansson, Beth Behrs, and Victoria's Secret models—were set to share the stage. As planned, at 1 PM Beijing time that day, Katy Perry, who had just finished campaigning for the U.S. presidential election, was to board a private plane and land in Shenzhen right on schedule. Her team had arrived early, and the stage design featuring a "Chinese dragon" was ready. Perry was to perform a medley of three songs, ending with "Firework," which had been used in the previous year's Super Bowl halftime show and would later close President Biden's inauguration ceremony four years later.
With only one day left before the gala, staff suddenly received word that Perry couldn't make it. Her supported candidate, Hillary Clinton, had just lost the U.S. presidential election to Donald Trump, and Perry was emotionally devastated, unable to fulfill her performance. It was a bolt from the blue for both Perry and the gala staff. The meticulously planned show schedule was thrown into disarray, leaving a nearly ten-minute finale gap. To fill the time, Jack Ma, originally scheduled to appear second-to-last, "conjured" a helicopter and "Black Widow" Scarlett Johansson on stage, performing a final card trick with her.
This was a gala that could never be replicated today, and even those who experienced it find the memories distant and surreal. A festival created by a company to sell goods brought together top global stars from China, the U.S., Germany, the UK, and more, with thousands of authoritative media outlets from around the world covering every detail from the venue to the logistics warehouses. That year, Double 11's transaction volume surpassed 100 billion yuan for the first time, and people believed it would eventually break the trillion-yuan mark. As the undisputed leader in e-commerce, Alibaba saw no threatening rivals: Tencent had abandoned self-operated e-commerce in favor of investments; JD.com had yet to expand into apparel; ByteDance had just launched Douyin to challenge Kuaishou; and a Shanghai startup called Pinduoduo was still doing unremarkable fruit group-buying business.
For consumers, shopping could be simple joy, and the shopping demand sparked by festive atmosphere and discounts became "consumption upgrade." Eight years later, we understand that this year Alibaba will no longer hold the Tmall Double 11 Gala. Double 11 has shifted from a lively carnival to direct promotions, with every penny spent wisely—investing traffic and subsidies in livestream rooms of top influencers like Li Jiaqi during the pre-sale period, and directly subsidizing merchants and products with the event budget.
Double 11 Every Year
The media centers in 2014, 2017, and 2019, with their hourly battle reports racing against numbers, accumulated the momentum of the first six Double 11s, reflecting the explosive growth of Chinese consumption. A bold idea emerged from Alibaba: in early 2015, internal discussions aimed to convey a concept—Double 11 should not just be an e-commerce shopping festival, but a national carnival, like the Spring Festival. Alibaba decided to host a gala on the night of Double 11. Feng Xiaogang, the general director of the first Tmall Double 11 Gala, said that when Jack Ma called him, it felt like he was handing over "a tremendous blessing." An Alibaba employee from the gala project team recalled, "It was the best of times; the company gave us enormous creative freedom."
The gala project team made many bold and avant-garde attempts that still seem daring today. With less than 50 days to the first gala, they decided at the last minute to switch the production and broadcast platform to Hunan Satellite TV, pulling off a gala under extreme pressure because to make an impact, they needed the industry's best hosts and production team. Inviting stars was also bold. Names like Taylor Swift, Adele, and Katy Perry were on the invitation list from the first year, with a goal of securing at least one top international star each year. In invitation emails, the gala was described as a combination of "Black Friday" and the "Super Bowl."
After the 2017 gala, Alibaba decided to hire a spokesperson for Tmall, with the final choice between a top male star and Yi Yangqianxi. At the time, Yi Yangqianxi wasn't yet a huge star, less popular than his two teammates, but he seemed to fit Tmall's various products well, and the project team remembered how he took notes seriously during conversations. In April 2018, Tmall officially announced Yi Yangqianxi as its spokesperson. Yi Yangqianxi may be the star who participated in the most galas, attending all except 2017.
The early galas were dazzling: Kevin Spacey, the "U.S. President" from the TV series "House of Cards," sent a congratulatory video from the "White House," envying Chinese consumers for their shopping spree; Lin Chi-ling took off her Burberry trench coat and, using AR technology, "threw" it from the stage to viewers' phones; actor Wang Kai crossed over to sing, and Liu Haoran crossed over to host; Jack Ma fulfilled his magic and movie dreams, giving away luxury cars with Daniel Craig, performing magic with Scarlett Johansson, and having Nicole Kidman announce his kung fu film "Gong Shou Dao."
Jack Ma's last appearance at the gala was in 2018, when he challenged five ordinary people and lost to all, one of whom was Taobao livestreamer Li Jiaqi. That year, Li Jiaqi became a household name, and in the years to come, he would become one of the key growth engines for Double 11 and Taobao as a whole, leveraging billions of viewers' purchasing desires on another screen.
Many Alibaba employees share the consensus that Double 11 in 2018 marked the peak of Alibaba's influence, not just because of Li Jiaqi. At that time, the merchant rankings across categories on Tmall Double 11 almost represented the industry's barometer, with the top spot being the biggest winner. Many top executives of European and American companies in China stayed up all night watching their brands' rankings on Double 11—winning the Chinese market, winning a Double 11, was almost equivalent to several years of growth in traditional channels.