Alibaba said a record $ 2 billion of goods were sold in the first hour of its Singles Day shopping bonanza in China today, maintaining the day's dominance as the world's biggest retail event as it went global for the first time.
The e-commerce giant said that amount was more than a third of the $ 5.8 billion full-day sales recorded on the same day last year and analysts say this year will blow that out of the water.Alibaba has been pushing November 11 as Singles Day -- so named for the number of ones in the date -- since 2009 as it looks to tap an expanding army of Internet shoppers in China, which has the world's biggest online population.
Singles Day already surpassed major shopping festivals in the US in terms of transaction value last year, toppling the combined online sales of $3.7 billion recorded on Thanksgiving Day.