Alibaba had another incredible sales day with a reported $30.8 billion in sales in 24 hours, its 10th annual Singles' Day sale. The growth actually slowed to 27% which was the slowest growth for the Chinese internet giant. The sales number dwarfs the revenue from all US retailers during Black Friday ($5 billion in 2017), Cyber Monday ($6.6 billion in 2017) and Amazon Prime Day ($4.7 billion in 2018) combined. That is an incredible feat and shows the power of the Chinese consumers.

Singles' Day, November 11, was originally created as a student holiday in China to celebrate single people, a sort of anti-Valentines Day. Alibaba turned it into an online shopping festival in 2009 and is now the world's largest online shopping extravaganza.

Some interested facts and figures from Singles' Day:

  • 4 hours before midnight, Alibaba hosted a gala featuring countless celebrities including supermodel Miranda Kerr and singer Mariah Carey.
  • Alibaba also showcased its tech innovations with robots serving coffee and delivering food to tables.
  • Shoppers pre-loaded their carts and helped propels sales to $1 billion in just 85 seconds.
  • Within 10 minutes, Alibaba sales hit $4.68 billion, eclipsing Amazon's sales from its 36-hour Prime Day event.
  • Buyers weren't just in China. 230 countries and regions completed transactions.
  • Top countries selling to China: Japan, US, South Korea, Australia and Germany
  • More than 180,000 participating brands from just 27 merchants in 2009.

    “Alibaba coffee” by charles chan * is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0

By Chris Wang