CHINESE SPEND BILLIONS ONLINE ON ‘SINGLES DAY’

Chinese consumers have spent billions of dollars shopping online for anything from diapers to diamonds on “Singles Day,” a day of promotions that has grown into the world’s biggest e-commerce event. China’s largest e-commerce giant, Alibaba Group, said Sunday sales by the thousands of retailers on its platforms for the 24-hour period on Saturday amounted to 168.3 billion yuan ($25.3 billion), setting a new record for the company. It was 39 percent more than sales clocked last year on Alibaba’s platforms of 120.7 billion yuan. By comparison, American shoppers last year spent more than $5 billion shopping online on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday, according to Adobe, which tracks such data.