Alibaba loans sellers $1.14b

E-commerce company Alibaba has issued small loans worth more than 7 billion yuan ($1.14 billion) in September to sellers on its e-commerce websites taobao.com and tmall.com in preparation for the expected peak shopping day on November 11, which is called "bachelor's (or single people's) day" in China.

On Wednesday, 2,866 sellers who run businesses on taobao.com and tmall.com were approved for loans totaling a combined 500 million yuan from Alibaba, Alibaba told the Global Times via e-mail on Wednesday.

Online sellers are using these loans to prepare for November 11, which usually sees online shops hold promotional campaigns.