Alibaba Crushes Singles Day Records with ¥168.2 Billion in Sales

It was yet another record-breaking Singles Day for Alibaba, with the e-commerce giant's platforms (Taobao and Tmall) going on to sell RMB168.2 billion (USD25.3 billion) in 24 hours during this year's online shopping extravaganza.

Sales increased 39 percent this year, up from USD17.8 billion in 2016. Shoppers from 225 countries and regions snapped up products from 140,000 participating stores, and more than 15 million goods — including a lifetime supply of baijiu — were available, according to China Daily. 

A whopping 90 percent of transactions were made from mobile devices.

A big screen show's Alibaba's final Singles Day sales from 2017.

Singles Day 2017 sales easily eclipsed those of last year's combined sales of Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the US.

Alibaba also sold RMB10 billion in the first three minutes of Double 11 Day, smashing last year's record-breaking threshold of seven minutes. By the first hour, sales had reached RMB57.1 billion (USD8.58 billion).

Sales after three minutes...

... and after one hour.

Over at Baopals, a website that translates Taobao and Tmall into English, sales reached RMB1.4 million with over 15,000 items sold. 

"The Baopals team operated all 24 hours and then some to make sure things went smoothly," company cofounder Jay Thornhill told That's. "We made sure ther was ample supply of energy drinks and pizza."

The Baopals team was also featured in CGTN's livestream of the shopping holiday at approximately 2.30am on November 11.

Baopals appears on CGTN's Singles Day livestream. Image provided to That's via Baopals

Singles Day is a sort of faux holiday that is a bit like China's answer to Cyber Monday. In recent years, the tech giant has brought out big stars for its Singles Day Gala, with Pharrell Williams, Nicole Kidman, Maria Sharapova, Zhang Ziyi, Kris Wu and Karen Mok all making appearances along with Alibaba billionaire founder Jack Ma Friday night in Shanghai.

Nicole Kidman and Jack Ma

Nicole Kidman

Pharrell Williams and Karen Mok

Zhang Ziyi

Jessie J

Ma also debuted his 22-minute short Kung Fu-style film on Singles Day.

https://v.qq.com/txp/iframe/player.html?vid=r0503o3josd&width=500&height=375&auto=0
Billionaire Alibaba founder and movie star Jack Ma

[Images via China Daily 1/2, Baopals, Youku, Arab News, SCMP]

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