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Transactions on Alibaba have passed $9 billion (£5.9 billion) in the first 12 hours of Singles' Day, passing the mark from last year with half the day still to go.
More than $1 billion (£659 million) was bought within the first eight minutes, and the site saw $3.9 billion (£2.5 billion) in sales in the first hour.
Sales on Singles' Day in 2014 were $9 billion, up from $5.8 billion (£3.8 billion) the year before.
Alibaba alone is expecting to ship 20 million parcels from this year's sales.
Singles' Day is an annual event held on November 11 as a response to Valentine's Day. It is billed as a time for a celebration of single life.
Alibaba became involved in 2009 when then-CEO Daniel Zhang came up with the idea to cut prices on the bachelor's day. It has since become the biggest 24-hour shopping period in the world, spreading to more than 400,000 outlets. Many of these outlets receive more orders in one day than they would in a month.
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Total sales for Alibaba this year are projected to top $14 billion (£9.2 billion).
The day far eclipses the $5.6 billion (£3.6 billion) spent by Americans on Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.
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