BitPay announced the results of the Bitcoin Black Friday 2014.
BitPay’s Tony Sakich announced Bitcoin Black Friday (BBF) 2014 results at the company’s blog:
“This year we saw an 82% increase in the number of merchants who completed transactions compared to last year’s BBF. While last year many of the discounts and deals were for bitcoin related technology, like bitcoin mining equipment, this year a broader range of retailers were offering bitcoin-specific deals on a wider array of items.
From 2013 to 2014 we witnessed a shift in spending patterns. Last year a large portion of the transactions were for bitcoin mining equipment, while this year we saw more spending on traditional ecommerce merchandise.
Both Gyft and NewEgg experienced their best day of bitcoin sales ever. Gyft had 62% more transactions this BBF than last year, while increasing the value of purchases by 139%. NewEgg set personal records for total dollar value of purchases, as well as number of transactions.
Amagi Metals also had their highest amount of bitcoin orders in one day. Other merchants with notable volume on Black Friday include: TigerDirect, Adafruit and Namecheap.
“With traditional Black Friday sales down 11% from last year, it’s important to recognize that bitcoin is being used for a variety of traditional products and services now. This Bitcoin Black Friday may signify a move forward and toward mainstream acceptance of bitcoin.”
The BBF results provided by BitPay demonstrate how much the digital currency industry has diversified and expanded over the last years.
However, no huge increase in digital cyrrency sales has been registered, given the fact that no statistics on total bitcoin transactions were presented.
During the first days of Black Friday, a decline in overall spending has been recorded. Moreover, no significant growth in bitcoin transaction volumes has been observed. According to the U.S. National Retail Federation, the total number of people participated in BBF amounted to 133.7 million, a decline of 5.2% from 2013.
In general, Bitcoin Black Friday 2014 attracted over 1,200 merchants from all over the world. In comparison, only 50 companies participated in the inaugural event in 2012. TigerDirect, Overstock, Fiverr and other companies were among the participants.
Meantime, bitcoin is demonstrating growth in another area of the economy, such as the job market. Although the overall rate of labor participation in the US is on a downward trend, there is a growing demand from bitcoin firms for new programmers and developers.
Polina is an undergraduate student at Belarusian State Economic University (BSEU) where she is studying at the faculty of International Business Communication for a degree specializing in Intercultural Communication. In her spare time she enjoys drawing, music and travelling.
