But thanks to clever marketing on the part of the retail giant alibaba in china it is now the countrys biggest shopping event. And its likely to be the worlds biggest retail event. Aliba ba created singles day 2009, and it has grown bigger every year. In fact, sales increased by 35 every year for the past five years. Just to give you an idea of how big a deal this is, last year, singles day generated 8 times more sales than the us led black friday event which traditionally marks the start of the Christmas Shopping season with over 38 billion dollars in sales injust one day. Joining us now from shanghi is robin brant. Lots of people have been buying and they have been doing so for the last 13 and a half hours. This event is huge and the figures, some of which you mentioned, are mind blowing. It is the biggest retail event and one figure i have seen today encapsulates it all. It says that at its peak today there will be 580,000 separate sales per second. Per second. And they are expectin
Now on bbc news, its hardtalk with stephen sackur. Welcome to hardtalk. Im stephen sackur. The tech sector is fast becoming a battleground where the United States and china, the worlds great economic powers, are competing for power and influence. So where does that leave europe in the race to shape the digitalfuture . Well, my guest today is herman hauser, veteran European Tech pioneer and Venture Capitalist. Is europe failing to build its own tech champions . Herman hauser in new zealand, welcome to hardtalk. Nice to be on hardtalk. You are a renowned tech entrepreneur, and when we look at the global tech sector that we have today with vastly wealthy companies, vastly successful entrepreneur innovators who lead them, it is tempting to see all of this as an expression of raw and pure capitalism. Is that the way you see the evolution of the tech sector . Partially, yes. And of course, in america in particular, capitalism has brought about some of the most dominant Tech Companies in the
Three brothers. Thanks for inviting us into your house tonight. Thats it for this special report, fair, balanced and unafraid. Greta goes on the record right now. Trump scoring his highest numbers in a brand new new york poll. The new york one Baruch College poll of g. O. P. Voters has donald trump with a commanding 60 . Governor john kasich a whopping 43 points behind trumpx v with 17 . And senator ted cruz way behind trump at 14 . We have hit the one week mark until new york has cast their votes and donald trump and secretary Hillary Clinton who are dominating in new york. We apologize for airplane hangers but they are the only things that hold our crowds because something is going on. Notice that under the bright spotlight and scrutiny here in new york senator sanders has had trouble answering questions. Our republican system is
absolutely rigged. I look forward to a debate that is in new york with people asking the kind of questions that new yorkers ask. New york state has lost thr
Absolutely rigged. I look forward to a debate that is in new york with people asking the kind of questions that new yorkers ask. New york state has lost three out of four, three out of four manufacturing jobs that existed in 1960 is gone. I want to start drawing the starkest distinction between what i know america stands for, what i believe our not just new york but american values, and what donald trump is standing for. Folks, what the hell is going on . Former speaker of the house Newt Gingrich is here. Nice to see you, mr. Speaker. Donald trump doing very well in new york. Why . Well, part of it is is he a new yorker and he has been around forever. He has been on page 6 in the gossip columns i think for over 30 years. Almost 40 years now. He feels like a new yorker. He talks like a new yorker. And people say welcome home. I have to say 60 is big. I thought when he was in the early low 50s he was impressive. If that poll is anywhere close to accurate, you are going to get a blow out,
And is also facing questions because next week we are supposed to start to see some nonessential shops opening up in england and again we know that businesses have been getting guidance on that from the government but ministers have not been talking about it much in recent days so i will not be surprised if there are also asked about that. The chief executive of the health and safety executive is going to be the press c0 nfe re nce safety executive is going to be the press Conference Attendee to date may be suggesting that the government feels they have still some reassuring to do after that schools announcement. We knowjust 5296 schools announcement. We knowjust 52 of schools will open two more pupils, opened last week when they we re pupils, opened last week when they were able to do so. They may be some reassu ra nces were able to do so. They may be some reassurances that the government thinks it may have to give to workers in those nonessential shops and to all of us to make sure w