Shopping meets dating on 11.11

Updated: 2013-11-11 11:22

It’s Nov 11 again. The “double 11” day has been celebrated as guang gun jie (Singles Day) in China since it started on campuses in the 1990s. In recent years, business-savvy Chinese e-retailers have successfully turned Singles Day into the world's biggest online shopping spree.

But behind the astronomical profits of e-commerce giants, there is another number that should not be ignored. There are 249 million single people in our country - accounting for one-fifth of the total population, passively waiting or desperately looking for love.

Bride group-buying
A free-of-charge group purchase of Vietnamese girls as brides on a group-buying website has attracted nearly 15,000 Chinese single men who want to register and try their luck. >>

Prizes for Newly-weds
Single people who take out one of three accident policies online from Ping An Insurance on Singles Day will be eligible for honeymoon gifts of up to $820 if they get married within a year.

Shopping frenzy
Online sales of an Internet company reached 6.7 billion yuan in one hour on Monday morning, an annual carnival for online shoppers. >>

Shopping tension
A man surnamed Zhang in Jilin province confiscated all his wife's bank cards as a preemptive measure against her shopping spree. >>

Dating sites challenged
China's online dating websites are facing challenges from social networking apps as more people are looking for their beloved through mobile apps such as WeChat. >>

Dating site spots face
Face-recognition was introduced by a dating website in China for love-seekers searching for their perfect match. Jiayuan.com has launched 3 applications - "couple look," "the right face match" and "dream lover".

Celebrations

Single men and women view information about participants on a wall at a large matchmaking fair held in Xuchang, Central China's Henan province, Nov 10.	Prison officers help 20 inmates set up a meet-and-greet with their family or lovers, in Chongqing, Nov 6.	People join a jogging competition to welcome the coming of Singles Day in Beijing Olympic Park, Nov 9, 2013.

Four 5-meter sticks were placed in front of a store to mark the upcoming Singles Day, which is Nov 11, in Jinan, East China's Shandong province, Nov 6.	Sixty-six couples from all over China and overseas get married in a traditional wedding in Leishan county, Qiandongnan Miao and Dong autonomous prefecture, Guizhou province, Nov 9.	A celebration that included contestants smashing ice sculptures and winning a prize was held by merchants ahead of Singles Day, which is Nov 11, in Wuhan, Nov 6, 2013.


'Singles Day' has shoppers ready to spend big
Chinese consumers will spend on average 1,800 yuan ($295) per person during Double Eleven Shopping Festival, according to AdMaster, an independent third-party digital marketing data analysis and management solution provider. >>

Video: Online retailers ready for 'Singles Day'	Singles Day promotions kindle China's spending power

Box office boost
More than 10 films plus one TV series will be released in November to mark Singles Day on Nov 11, cnr.cn reported. >>

Love Speaks	Sweetheart Chocolate	We Get Married

Celebrity quote - Not just online promotion for singles

"The festival's promotion needs more of a human touch, focused on single men and women's feelings... It's better to help them put loneliness behind them than just fill their spare time with promotions".
---Tian Fanjiang, CEO of Baihe.com

China Daily Forum: "Leftover men" pose potential social challenges

Socially, experts said, a surplus of single men especially in villages, can lead to an increase in violent sex crimes and bride trafficking across borders.

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Total number

Raining men

Southern singles

Widest gender gap

About 249 million people are of marriageable age - at least 20 for women, and 22 for men - in China, accounting for one-fifth of the total population, according to the National Bureau of Statistics of China.

A survey from Baihe.com, one of the country’s largest online matchmaking websites, showed that up to 11% of single people in China now are in Guangdong province.

Yunnan province leads the nation in gender disparity in the registered matchmaking market, Chuncheng Evening News reported. Single men accounted for 70% of those registered on matchmaking sites in the province, with single women making up 30 %.


Map of single people
A survey from Baihe.com, showed that up to 11 percent of single people in China now are in Guangdong province, but those single people said they are too busy and face a lot of pressure at work. The survey jokingly referred to the dining habits down south: "Cantonese eat five meals a day, which deprives them of time to date." Beijing has the highest proportion of single women in the country, because their toughness frightens men away, the survey said.
List of the top 10: No.1 Guangdong No.2 Beijing No.3 Jiangsu No.4 Shandong No.5 Henan No. 6 Sichuan No. 7 Yunnan No. 8 Hebei No.9 Hubei No. 10 Shanghai
	Ranking according to survey results from Baihe.com. [Photo/chinadaily.com.cn]