Alibaba Singles’ Day

From festive passenger vehicle sales to Alibaba's Singles' Day sales hitting $38 billion, here are the top headlines for the day

On Monday, China's largest e-commerce company logged more than $38.3 billion of purchases during its annual Singles' Day shopping event, a new record

Launched in 2009, Singles' Day has become China's version of US online sale event Cyber Monday

As online retail growth slows in top-tier cities, Alibaba faces fierce competition from emerging players like Pinduoduo that use budget deals to attract price-sensitive consumers in lower-tier cities

Sales growth for the annual shopping festival this year eased to 26%, the weakest since the event started in 2009, in a reflection of how e-commerce sales in China have been slowing.

China on its own represents 54.7% of the global e-commerce market, nearly twice the share of the next five countries combined, the report showed.

Within the first two hours, the total GMV exceeded $17.24 billion, surpassing the total GMV of 2016 11.11

The annual frenzy had already hit $8.6 billion in sales in the first hour after starting at midnight, and by 8 am some 82 brands had topped 100-million yuan in sale

Singles' Day has become an annual 24-hour extravaganza that exceeds the combined sales for Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the United States

Jack Ma is using the event as a testing ground for his plans to revamp China's $4 trn traditional retail sector with technology