Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba (BABA, Tech30) s aid Saturday that sales soared past $18 billion after just 13 hours of the retail blitz known as Singles Day, eclipsing the $17.8 billion it managed in the full 24 hours last year.
Singles Day, a bonanza of online spending in China, has for years racked up more sales than Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.
Earlier in the day, Alibaba said eager shoppers had managed to spend $1 billion in just 2 minutes.
As the clock struck midnight in Shanghai, the final sales tally rang in at $25,386,927,848, marking about a 40% increase over last year’s record-setting sales total.
Singles Day started out as an informal holiday in China celebrating single people on a day that epitomizes not being paired off: 11/11. Alibaba turned it into a festival of discount deals in 2009.
