Alibaba Cloud Powered $1B of GMV in 68 Seconds, with Zero Downtime During 11.11
Alibaba Cloud today detailed the core technologies used during the record-breaking, 24-hour global shopping festival. The data intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group applied multiple mature innovations to power the cloud infrastructure and other key AI-enabled features, enabling millions of businesses to reach hundreds of millions of consumers worldwide.
Powerful cloud infrastructure supports extreme scalability and robustness
Launched during the Apsara Conference in September, the third generation of X-Dragon architecture fully supported the shopping event. The Elastic Bare Metal Servers improved cost efficiency by 20%. X-Dragon servers seamlessly integrate computing platforms, including the Elastic Compute Service (ECS) bare metal server and virtual machines, in a single architecture.
Tapping this strong foundation, Alibaba Cloud handled extreme scalability, processing USD1 billion of GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume) in the first 68 seconds of the event; volume hit USD10 billion of GMV in under 30 minutes. Overall, Alibaba Cloud’s infrastructure handled a record-shattering USD38.4 billion of GMV in 24 hours with zero downtime.
Combining advanced data processing and analytic capabilities with green technologies
Apsara Operating System processed around 970PB of data to support the peak performance of 544,000 orders per second, setting a record during 11.11.
POLARDB, a database developed by Alibaba Cloud, supported sales activity with a peak of 87 million requests processed per second. The new generation cloud-native POLARDB database combines performance with compatibility and availability of traditional enterprise databases in a cost-effective manner.
Through self-developed green technologies, including liquid immersion and deep-water cooling, power consumption for every 10,000 e-Commerce transactions can be reduced to 2kWh. Overall data center energy consumption dropped 70% from last year, saving over 200,000 kWh on 11.11.
AI-enabled features to empower sellers from international brands to SMBs
Thousands of Tmall merchants were upgraded to Tmall Flagship Store 2.0 storefronts before 11.11. Version 2.0 offers a unique user interface with a 3D Taobao avatar for customers to try on clothes and jewelry, further engaging customers via rich, interactive content and an omni-channel experience. The conversion rate per purchase was increased by over 20% from last year, serving 1,167 key brands' flagship stores this year.
Alime Shop Assistant, a customer-service chatbot supported by Alibaba DAMO Academy’s machine learning technologies, handled 97% of online customer inquiries on Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms Taobao and Tmall during 11.11. The virtual assistant also empowered hundreds of thousands of merchants on Alibaba’s platforms with intelligent customer services. For example, Alime answered questions during live broadcasts, extracting answers from pictures and responding conversationally. The Alime chatbot service offers 11 languages to support communications between global buyers and sellers.
Alibaba DAMO Academy provides enhanced machine translation technology for the cross-border e-commerce platform AliExpress. The technology can help small and medium-sized merchants globally to automatically translate their store and product pages into 21 languages, including Russian, Spanish, Turkish, French and Arabic, for buyers across Europe, Asia, America and the Middle East.
During the shopping festival, the machine translation service was used 1.66 billion times, with over 200 billion words translated in different languages.
Better consumer experience with live streaming and voice shopping
During this year’s global shopping festival, transactions during Taobao Live generated nearly USD 2.8 billion (RMB20 billion) in sales. More than half of the live streaming Tmall merchants selling products such as cosmetics, clothing, food, cars and electronics experienced robust growth, with home décor products seeing 400% sales growth.
This year, Taobao developed a new, real-time communications framework for audio and video on Alibaba Cloud. Network latency was reduced to 1.5 seconds from five to seven seconds, improving real-time interaction experience between broadcasters and users. Video AI identified products mentioned by broadcasters during live streaming, and audiences could view product links simultaneously displayed onscreen.
During 11.11, over one million orders were placed and processed through voice command via Tmall Genie, Alibaba A.I. Labs’ smart speaker. Purchased items during the day included 810,000 eggs, 1.4 million tons of rice and 76 tons of liquid detergent, a sign that voice shopping has become an increasingly popular trend among Chinese consumers of all ages.
About Alibaba Cloud
Established in 2009, Alibaba Cloud (www.alibabacloud.com), the data intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, is among the world's top three IaaS providers, according to Gartner. It is also the largest provider of public cloud services in China, according to IDC. Alibaba Cloud provides a comprehensive suite of cloud computing services to businesses worldwide, including merchants doing business on Alibaba Group marketplaces, start-ups, corporations and public services. Alibaba Cloud is the official Cloud Services Partner of the International Olympic Committee.
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191119005400/en/
Contact information
Alibaba Group
Claudia Ju claudia.ju@alibaba-inc.com
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
FieldBee Vision wins Gold for Digital Technology Innovation at LAMMA 20269.1.2026 06:25:00 EET | Press release
FieldBee, the European leader in high-quality, easy-to-use and affordable precision agriculture technologies, proudly announces that FieldBee Vision has earned global recognition, becoming the Gold Winner in the Digital Technology Innovation of the Year category at the LAMMA Innovation Awards 2026. Lamma Show is the UK’s premier agricultural machinery, technology and equipment innovation. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260107606411/en/ FieldBee wins the LAMMA Innovation Award 2026 for Digital Technology Innovation of the Year for the FieldBee Vision (VisionSteer & VisionPro) system FieldBee Vision is part of the newly launched myFieldBee ecosystem, built to unify FieldBee’s precision farming tools and designed to connect navigation, autosteering, ISOBUS into one unified platform that supports planning, execution, monitoring and reporting. FieldBee Vision, the first modular retrofit agricultural vision system,
Survey Finds Over 70% of Chinese Doctors Recommend “AI Doctor Services” Like Ant Group’s AQ for Everyday Health Needs9.1.2026 05:31:00 EET | Press release
A recent survey by Life Times, a well-known Chinese public health media outlet, shows that AI doctor services are broadly supported by doctors in China. Among 500 physicians from the country’s top-tier (tertiary) hospitals, more than 70% said they would recommend AI doctor services to patients for everyday health questions and routine health management. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260108456917/en/ Ant Group’s AI-native health app AQ is designed to address common, everyday health concerns and support healthy habit formation. Ant Group’s AQ was the most frequently recommended platform in the survey. The latest figures show that, as of January 2026, the app had accumulated 30 million monthly active users and answers over 10 million health-related questions daily, making it China’s leading AI-native health app. AQ—known in Chinese as Ant A-Fu—is an AI-native health app launched by Ant Group in June 2025. Desig
OPPO Joins VVC Advance Patent Pool as a Licensee and Extends HEVC Advance License9.1.2026 04:00:00 EET | Press release
Access Advance LLC and Guangdong OPPO Mobile Telecommunications Corp., Ltd. (OPPO) today announced that OPPO has joined the VVC Advance Patent Pool as a Licensee and renewed its HEVC Advance License. OPPO, one of the world's largest smartphone manufacturers with operations in more than 70 countries, has been a valued participant in Access Advance's HEVC patent pool since 2020, and more recently joined the Advance Video Distribution Patent (VDP) Pool as a Licensor. These latest agreements mark a new milestone in a broad and deepening relationship between the two companies, with OPPO now participating across all three of Access Advance's video codec licensing programs. The VVC Advance Patent Pool licenses patents essential to the VVC/H.266 standard, which delivers remarkable improvement of video compression performance over HEVC, enabling higher-quality video experiences including 4K, 8K, and HDR content with faster downloads and lower latency. The pool currently includes over 4,500 worl
Cessna Citation CJ3 Gen2 Enters Into Service, Delivering the Most Significant Gen2 Updates to Date8.1.2026 23:30:00 EET | Press release
The Cessna Citation CJ3 Gen2 has entered into service, setting a new standard for the Citation Gen2 family. Launch customers and longtime Citation owners Dave Mecartney and Shannon Day took delivery of their new aircraft this week. Mecartney—an experienced aviator with nearly two decades flying Citation light jets and a member of Textron Aviation’s Customer Advisory Board—helped shape the enhancements that elevate the CJ3 Gen2 experience. Key upgrades include Garmin autothrottle technology, added pilot legroom and a fully customizable cabin environment, all driven by customer feedback. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260108455097/en/ Cessna Citation CJ3 Gen2 enters into service, delivering the most significant Gen2 updates to date (Photo credit: Textron Aviation). The Cessna Citation CJ3 Gen2 is designed and manufactured by Textron Aviation Inc., a Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT) company. “The Citation CJ3 Gen2 deliv
SPIE, the International Society for Optics and Photonics, Announces Its 2026 Society Awards8.1.2026 19:26:00 EET | Press release
Today, the Awards Committee of SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, announced the recipients of its prestigious annual awards. Honoring transformative advancements across a range of professional areas — including medicine, astronomy, lithography, optical metrology, optical design, and community leadership — the Society's awards recognize technical accomplishments as well as committed service to SPIE and support of its organizational mission. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260108227351/en/ SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, awarded their Gold Medal to Maryellen Giger (pictured here with her team) for pioneering work in computer-aided diagnosis and image analysis/AI, significant impact on clinical translation, and supporting the next generation of medical-imaging scientists and the SPIE community. SPIE Gold Medal: Maryellen Giger For pioneering work in computer-aided
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom