Alibaba Group Holdings Limited announced record-breaking sales of $17.8 billion on Singles Day from Thursday into Friday, up 32% from $14.3 billion in 2015.
The dizzy rate at which transactions were happening during Singles Day was staggering: out of the gate there was $1.4 billion worth of sales in less than seven minutes, hitting $5 billion within the first hour.
[Related: Alibaba Singles’ Day Tops 2015 Sales with Hours To Go]
Total mobile sales through Alipay hit $14.6 billion, an 82% billion increase from 2015. This was up significantly from a 69% increase last year.
Alibaba Cloud processed 175,000 orders per second at the peak of Singles Day. Alipay processed more than one billion payment transactions, 120,000 per second at the peak. Alibaba’s Cainiao Network processed more than 657 million delivery orders placed on the company’s Chinese, international and retail marketplaces.
Alibaba said it was the most global Singles Day since its inception in 2009, with consumers from 235 countries and regions completing cross-border transactions. Thirty-seven percent of buyers purchased from international brands or merchants.
Some of the top countries selling to China include the United States, Japan, South Korea, Australia and Germany. Top U.S. brands in terms of sales included Apple, Nike, New Balance, Playboy and Skechers.
Meanwhile, Chinese rival JD.com said it saw a 78% increase in its Singles Day orders as of midday on Nov. 11, compared to 2015. In addition to successfully piggybacking, the company also tested drone delivery in rural China on Singles Day.