Alibaba Competitor Agrees To Accept Chinese Digital Currency On Singles Day; Smashes Records

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd BABA peer JD.com Inc JD agreed to accept China’s digital yuan e-CNY for payment on its e-commerce platform during Singles Day, CNBC reports.
JD said that as of November 11, over 100,000 people had used e-CNY on the company’s app during the Singles Day promotion period, which started on the evening of October 31 and ends on November 11.
JD is collaborating with China Construction Bank on the initiative.
JD.com has racked up 311.4 billion yuan ($48.6 billion) in sales across its platforms Singles Day shopping event, smashing through its record last year, CNBC reports. In 2020, JD’s transaction volume totaled 271.5 billion yuan.
From December 11 to June 18, 450,000 customers have used e-CNY payments on the JD app and collectively spent over 100 million yuan (about $15.6 million).
Singles Day, which sees China’s e-commerce players like Alibaba, JD tout heavy discounts and rakes in billions of dollars of sales, could be a good test of the digital currency in a large-scale situation.
Cities around China have been trialing the digital yuan by giving out free money via lotteries to citizens.
In December, JD became the first online platform to accept Chinese digital currency. JD had paid some employees using e-CNY as of April.
Price Action: JD shares traded higher by 3.79% at $80.69 in the premarket session on the last check Thursday.