A Global Times editorial says stockpiling AI tokens became a headline item at this year's Singles' Day sales, arguing that digital innovation is now growing out of China's own consumer market. The figures are those the editorial cites and were not independently verified by this paper.
According to the Global Times editorial, stockpiling tokens became a lead product in e-commerce during this year's Double 11. Tmall and JD.com opened token sections, with Alibaba Cloud, DeepSeek, Moonshot AI and Zhipu among the sellers, and one livestream reportedly sold 2 trillion tokens in half an hour.
광고 문의 · 300×250The editorial argues this may be possible only in China today and that foreign media find it both novel and astonishing. That is the editorial's interpretation; it cites no specific foreign coverage.
From the ‘four big items’ to tokens
The editorial recalls that when Americans were driving cars and watching TV, the staple ‘four big items’ of Chinese households were the wristwatch, bicycle, sewing machine and radio, and that TVs, refrigerators and washing machines reached a few homes only in the late 1970s. Where China once chased industrial goods already common elsewhere, it argues, it can now set standards in new consumption and lifestyles.
It adds that digital products used to be defined in Silicon Valley and then spread worldwide, whereas tokens grew out of China's huge digital consumer market, active users and mature industrial ecosystem.
The editorial's evidence and its limits
Citing the AI-model aggregator OpenRouter, the editorial says that from Oct. 26 to Nov. 1 Chinese models' token usage exceeded America's for a 27th straight week, and that over one third of tokens used by Global South firms come from Chinese models. It also cites a 2025 KPMG survey of 47 countries that found Chinese respondents among the most optimistic about AI. We could not check these figures against the original data.
The editorial stresses the shift came without any ‘plunder or wall-building,’ saying the Chinese people's pursuit of a better life is unchanged and only the means and capability have changed. It reflects a domestic Chinese viewpoint; whether token sales equal technological leadership, and foreign views on security or data regulation, are not covered.