Alibaba Singles Day sales missed expectations

Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma said that the company's Singles Day performance missed expectations and blamed the hot weather and that the huge shopping event fell on a weekday.

The Chinese e-commerce giant, broke up gross goods value (GMV) of 268.4 billion yuan or more than $ 38.3 billion, setting a new record. GMV to measure sales across its shopping platforms.

Singles Day, also known as "Double 1[ads1]1" because it drops on November 11, is a huge 24-hour shopping event where thousands of products receive big discounts. [19659002] While Singles Day GMV was above market forecasts, they did not beat what Ma expected.

"What I want to tell you is that Singles Day sales this year have not even met my expectations," Ma said at the 5th World Zhejiang Entrepreneurs Convention on Wednesday, according to a CNBC translation.

"There are several reasons, one of them is that the weather is too hot. Clothes sell better when it's cold. Another reason is that it's a Monday," Ma added, in a video circulating on Chinese social Media.

The co-founder of Alibaba said he hoped the government would give people half a day off work for future Singles Day events.

Alibaba was not immediately available for comment.

Mom's comments come as Alibaba reads for a secondary listing in Hong Kong where it could raise $ 13 billion, a source with direct knowledge of the case told CNBC.