A decade ago, November 11th was a tongue-in-cheek cultural “celebration” of single people in China. In 2009, retailer Alibaba turned the day into the country’s version of Black Friday — and eight years later, sales from the Chinese e-commerce’s one-day event has nearly doubled those from Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the US combined.
Alibaba reported that sales from Singles’ Day amounted to $25.3 billion, a 40 percent jump from last year’s figures. (The number did not take into account some sales that began earlier in the week in honor of the event.) Additionally, the retailer hit a record $18 billion in just 13 hours on Saturday, eclipsing last year’s record of $17.8 billion in 24...
