Alibaba sailed past its own Singles’ Day record

Singles’ Day started out as a joke among a group of male college students attending Nanjing University in the 1990s. Originally called Bachelor Day because it was celebrated only by young men, the holiday has since morphed into a nationwide holiday for all genders, with its own traditions. China Daily reports “People eat four fried dough sticks representing the four ones in 11.11. Blind-date parties and even matchmaking fairs have become popular November 11 events.” Today is Singles’ Day in China which is also marked as China’s biggest e-commerce sales day.

Alibaba says “Last year, Alibaba did $5.75 billion in sales across its two biggest shopping services — its Taobao Marketplace and T-Mall site for brands — and the company easily matched that this year, reaching that number with more than ten hours left in the day.” However this year, the company has broken its own record to sail past the staggering figure of $5.75 billion in sales. The Singles’ Day shopping sales exceeded last year’s sales posting around over $2 billion in the first hour only. The company hit the mark of $1 billion in less than 20 minutes.

Alibaba said that more than half of the sales came from smartphones and tablets. “Back to the early Alibaba announcements, and it’s interesting to note that 48 percent of that initial $1 billion in goods — and 46 percent of the first $2 billion — were bought using smartphones and tablets.” It was all expected as the founder of the company that Alibaba is confident of hitting such high numbers. It was estimated that the company will be shipping more than 200 million packages.

Singles’ Day is not only known as the biggest e-commerce sales day in China but it stands out the biggest e-commerce sales day all across the world. The company has proven to be one of the fastest growing business in recent times and as the result shows, there is no doubt about the fact that it might be the top company in near future.