Alibaba Singles Day sales smash another record

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has set a new sales record during the world’s biggest online shopping spree known as Singles’ Day, as the event has brought in more than $37 billion.

The new milestone was reached nearly 17 hours after the online shopping festival kicked off on Monday at midnight with a performance by American pop star Taylor Swift. There are still seven hours to go to reach new highs.

The 24-hour Chinese retail extravaganza, similar to Black Friday, generated more than $1 billion in the first minute alone, Alibaba reported. In the first nine hours, sales jumped 25 percent compared to the same point last year.

After 15 hours, the gross merchandise volume was on track to reach $30 billion, nearly half of US rival Amazon’s net sales in the entire third quarter, and already nearing last year’s record sales. The number of delivery orders for 2019 Singles’ Day already surpassed the total for 2017.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Singles’ Day, also known as ‘Double 11’, as it falls on November 11. The tradition originates from Chinese college campuses where students have a tradition dating back to the 90s of celebrating being single.

Last year’s 11/11 Singles’ Day generated a record $30.8 billion (213.5 billion yuan), a massive jump over the $25 billion in sales in 2017. The event has broken sales records every year, already beating both US shopping holidays Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.

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