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Alibaba Group to Host 2015 11.11 Global Shopping Festival Countdown Gala at Water Cube in Beijing

BABA | October 20, 2015

Alibaba Group (NYSE:BABA) announced yesterday that it will host its inaugural countdown gala celebration for the 2015 11.11 Global Shopping Festival at the Water Cube (National Aquatics Center) in Beijing on the evening of November 10. The gala celebration will be directed by famous Chinese film director Feng Xiao Gang, featuring celebrities and performances that will be broadcast live internationally, with limited tickets available to the public. This year’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival focuses on globalization, logistics, mobile and omni-channel commerce.

Alibaba will also open up several thousand seats at the gala to members of the public, who will have the chance to win tickets starting from late October, through Tmall’s official Weibo account, Tmall’s mobile app and other channels.

Jeff Zhang, president of China Retail Marketplaces of Alibaba Group, said at yesterday’s O2O press conference in Beijing: “This year’s 11.11 festival has attracted global attention. To us, one important objective is to let our consumers have fun. We are opening the gala event to the public as part of our broader efforts to promote globalization. We will keep investing and working with our partners to provide our consumers all over the world with premium products and services.”

During the four-hour gala, which will be broadcast live internationally from the iconic Water Cube, consumers will be able to enjoy an interactive multiscreen experience including mobile, online and TV allowing them to watch, play and purchase at the same time.

While watching the show, consumers will be able to use the ‘shaking function’ of the Mobile Taobao App and Mobile Tmall App to get surprise rewards such as overseas trips, smart home appliances and other products, all for only 1 RMB. Consumers will also be able to obtain props and costumes seen in the show, and to navigate to the purchase page of the international brands featured at the event.

Under the theme of globalization, this year's 11.11 Global Shopping Festival will feature 6 million products from more than 40,000 merchants and 30,000 brands, including 5,000 overseas brands from 25 countries and regions including the U.S., Europe, Japan and South Korea.

For more information on the 11.11 Shopping Festival, please visit: http://www.alizila.com/worlds-biggest-e-sale

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