Benzinga | Nov 11, 2021 07:45AM EST

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

* Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) peer JD.com Inc (NASDAQ: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.