It’s become the talk of the town that you can buy close to just about anything on Taobao, China’s current leading platform for online shopping, which has unsurprisingly seen great success recently. What was first believed to have been a funny prank for April Fool’s has turned out to be much more than just a harmless joke. According to Chinese media sources, an online shopper that has requested to not disclose his identity, he spent a hefty 40 million yuan (equivalent to $5.6 million) in order to have a personal rocket launch just for himself. You know, just a casual purchase that we all do on a regular basis. Well, not really, in all honesty.
Wei Ya, a popular Chinese sales anchor hosted the rather unheard of online auction for the commercial rocket launch, with more than two million people who viewed the online sale on the shopping platform. Bidders were promised that if they were to make the highest offer and win the auction, they would not only be given the chance to paint the rocket, as well as the launch platform, but that they would be able to visit the launch site itself, and yes, even control the launching of the rocket!
The auction went live on April 1st all over social media in China, with hundreds of thousands of people talking about it. Many people were convinced that it was simply a hilarious prank for April Fool’s – but according to media sources, it was a real offer.
The winner who made the highest offer remains anonymous for now, all we know is that he spent one serious sum of making this dream come true. The commercial rocket launch is scheduled to be launched in Wuhan, China, perhaps using it as a chance to promote Wuhan after everything that’s been going on.