Since November 9, 2009, China has experienced the largest range of rain and snow since the beginning of winter, and more than 30 provinces have been affected. Strong cold air swept across North China, and traffic in many places was paralyzed by this rare snowstorm. Two days later, in the early morning of November 11, against the heavy snow, Taobao CFO Zhang Yong successfully "landed" in Beijing. Turning on the phone, the first call he received was the team's Double Eleven report, which allowed his hanging heart to "land" smoothly. At 12 o'clock in the morning, China's first Double Eleven officially kicked off.
The Double Eleven headquarters in Hangzhou was still very simple at that time, with more than a dozen people, several computers, fluorescent lamps, and an Excel table for manually adjusting sales data. There is no pre-sale, no coupons, only a simple Fax List and rude 50% discount. However, sales unexpectedly rose rapidly. Before noon, many brand owners called and said they hoped to take off the shelves, because the stock in the warehouse had been sold out. The final sales amount was fixed at 52 million, which is an exaggerated figure, because the daily sales of some big brands on Taobao Mall (the predecessor of Tmall) were only tens of thousands of yuan, but they sold for several weeks on Double Eleven.
Even a few months of sales, if there are enough goods, they may sell more, of which Jack Jones, the top seller, sold 5 million in full. After the event, Taobao employees who were once regarded as "losers" took a group photo with the printed "5", "2" and a lot of "0" and a round quartz pendulum into 52,000,000. That night, Zhang Yong was not in Hangzhou, he was eating hot pot with friends on a snowy night in Beijing. But this Double Eleven became Zhang Yong's battle for fame in Alibaba.