#singles-day

#singles-day

Apple carried China's Singles Day shopping festival into sales growth. Apple's iPhone series accounted for 26% of smartphone sales in the one-month promo period that ended on November 11. Per Counterpoint's numbers, removing the iPhone 17 series numbers would leave the Singles Day festival at a 5% year-on-year decline. According to data firm Syntun's numbers, 2025's Singles Day totalled 1.70 trillion CNY ($240 billion, €208 billion) across platforms, up from 1.44 trillion CNY in 2024.

'Singles Day is supposedly the flip side of Valentine's Day. It was created by Chinese single male university students in the 1990s who cheered themselves up by purchasing something nice for themselves. The date selected was 11/11, with the repeated number 1 symbolising solo living. By 2009, the event had become a global sales sensation, with people spending money not only on themselves but also buying presents early for Christmas.