Chinese consumers rush to order Apple’s iPhone 13 as cheaper prices lure bargain hunters
- The huge influx of buyers to Apple’s official website in China has slowed it to a crawl
- The first batch of iPhones was no longer available for purchase online as of Saturday, with new pre-orders now set to be delivered at a later date
Chinese consumers have pre-ordered millions of the new iPhone 13 across the country’s multiple e-commerce platforms, resulting in online traffic jams and viral social media discussions.
Cupertino-based Apple last Friday opened pre-orders for its new iPhone line – the iPhone 13, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max – and the launch has proved an instant hit with Chinese consumers. The new smartphones will start to be delivered in China on September 24.
The number of pre-orders across multiple third-party e-commerce platforms was estimated by Chinese state media to have exceeded 5 million on Friday, with JD.com alone receiving more than 3 million pre-orders.
The huge influx of buyers to Apple’s official website in China has slowed it to a crawl. The hashtag #Apple’sWebsiteisDown was trending on microblogging site Weibo last week, with related posts amassing more than 460 million views.
The first batch of iPhones was no longer available for purchase online as of Saturday, with new pre-orders now set to be delivered at a later date, starting the second week of October.
“They [the new iPhones] are really gone in just seconds. I either can’t get into the website or if I get into the website by luck, it shows that they are sold out,” one commentator on Weibo wrote.
