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Alibaba's Ma: Beijing APEC summit could complicate 'Singles Day' deliveries

[November 07, 2014]  HANGZHOU China (Reuters) - Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's Executive Chairman Jack Ma said on Friday the e-commerce giant's deliveries in the annual Nov. 11 'Singles' Day' shopping event could be affected by next week's Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Beijing.

Ma was speaking during a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, where Alibaba has its headquarters, ahead of the APEC summit. The Chinese government has imposed restrictions on traffic during the summit which could complicate Beijing deliveries.

Ma said he hoped customer demand on Singles' Day won't surpass 200 million packages. "I bet the number is going to be scary," Ma said.

During last year's Singles' Day, Alibaba's e-commerce platforms generated more than 150 million packages, or about $5.75 billion in gross merchandise volume, a measure of the total value of the goods shipped.

(Reporting by Andrea Hopkins; Writing by Ben Blanchard and Paul Carsten; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)

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