Chinese e-commerce giant has posted a record $17.79 billion worth of sales on Friday during its Singles’ Day festival, amid huge fanfare and celebrity razzmatazz. 11/11 — is “Singles Day” in China, the holiday when single people are encouraged to celebrate and buy presents for themselves.
Alibaba claimed its online marketplace saw $1 billion in sales within the first five minutes, with the order volume reached 175,000 orders per second. Total sales in the first two hours passed $5 billion, with 84% of sales coming from mobile devices.
“Back in 2013, $5.14 billion was our one-day GMV. Now we can achieve it in one hour,” Alibaba Group CEO Daniel Zhang said. The final total marked a 32% rise from 2015.
Some have questioned the accuracy of the numbers posted by the company. In fact, in May this year, Alibaba said it’s being investigated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over its accounting practices, and one of the areas the agency was focuisng on was “operating data from its annual ‘Singles’ Day’ sale.”
