Happy Singles Day - An Alibaba Success Story - BABA

Happy Singles or Bachelors' Day.   

From Singles Day (Wikipedia)

• Singles' Day or Guanggun Jie (Chinese: 光棍节; pinyin: Guānggùn Jié; Wade–Giles: Kuang-kun chieh; literally: "bare sticks holiday") is a day for people who are single, celebrated on November 11 (11/11). 
• The date is chosen for the connection between singles and the number '1'. 
• This holiday became popular among young Chinese people.
• Singles' Day or Bachelors' Day was initially celebrated at various universities in Nanjing during the 1990s, and originated from Nanjing University in 1993. It got the name "Singles' Day" because the date consists of four "ones". These college students have since graduated, and carried the university tradition into society. 
• Singles' Day has been largely popularized in the internet era and is now a special day for all fashionable youths.

It is fascinating how Alibaba (BABA) turned this into the largest shopping day in the world using its clout and the large imbalance of single men in China largely due to their "One-child policy."

From One-child policy (Wikipedia)

• The family planning policy, known as the one-child policy in the West is a population control policy of the People's Republic of China.
• The policy was introduced in 1979 to alleviate social, economic, and environmental problems in China.
• The sex ratio at birth (between male and female births) in mainland China reached 117:100 and remained steady between 2000 and 2013, substantially higher than the natural baseline, which ranges between 103:100 and 107:100. It had risen from 108:100 in 1981—at the boundary of the natural baseline—to 111:100 in 1990.
  
• According to a report by the National Population and Family Planning Commission, there will be 30 million more men than women in 2020, potentially leading to social instability, and courtship-motivated emigration

I think Jack Ma, CEO of Alibaba, showed he may be the world's top capitalist by getting a trademark on the "double eleven" term in China then turning it into the largest day for online shopping in the year. 

• The term "双十一" (meaning "Double 11") was trademarked in China by the Alibaba Group on Dec 28, 2012 under registration numbers 10136470 and 10136420. 
• In Oct 2014, Alibaba threatened legal action against media outlets that accept advertising from competitors that use this term.
• See Why Singles’ Day Makes Alibaba Stock Look Better Than Ever
  "Well, imagine what retailing would be like if the U.S. government gave Walmart (WMT) the exclusive right to use the words “Valentine’s Day” for all shopping promotions offering discount prices on Feb. 14."

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New 2014 Series I-Bond Rates: From Nov 3, 2014 through April 30, 2015

The Bureau of the Public Debt today announced earnings rates for Series I Savings Bonds and Series EE Savings Bonds, issued from November 3, 2014 through April 30, 2015.

I bond fixed rates are determined each May 1 and November 1. Each fixed rate applies to all I-bonds issued in the six months following the rate determination.

The Current I Bond Composite Earnings Rate is 1.48% 

For more about how I Bond Rates are calculated, see 

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