Alibaba Group co-founder and Executive Chairman Jack Ma gestures during Alibaba Group's 11.11 Singles' Day global shopping festival in Shanghai, China SundayREUTERSSingles’ Day, also called 'Double 11' is the world’s biggest online sales event, outstripping US shopping holiday Black FridayChinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd smashed the 2017 record for its Singles’ Day sales event on Sunday, surpassing 168 billion RMB ($24.15 billion) sales in under sixteen hours. Singles’ Day, also called “Double 11” is the world’s biggest online sales event, outstripping US shopping holiday Black Friday. The company settled roughly 69 billion RMB ($9.92 billion) in the first hour of Singles’ Day on Sunday, up roughly 21% from last year’s early haul of 57 billion RMB. “Having said that, there are more consumers who still enjoy shopping at double 11 than those that don’t,” he said. This year, Alibaba said there were around 180,000 brands participating in Singles’ Day, and as of 8 pm yesterday, sales were nearing $27 billion.

Source: Dhaka Tribune November 11, 2018 18:11 UTC