China's Single's Day sales hit 1.4 bln USD in first 2 minutes

Another record-breaking "Singles Day" shopping promotion has taken place in China.

A giant electronic screen shows the total GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume) from online shopping on Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba's marketplaces Tmall and Taobao on November 11 reaching RMB 10 billion yuan (1.44 billion U.S. dollars) at two minutes during the Tmall 11.11 Global Shopping Festival 2018 at the media center in Shanghai, China, 11 November 2018. [Photo: IC]

Online sales reached 10 billion Chinese yuan, or some 1.4 billion US dollars, in just 2-mintues-5-seconds after midnight this morning, breaking last year's record of 3-minutes-1-second.

So-called 'Singles Day,' November 11th, or 1-1-1-1 on the calendar, was a notion first championed by Chinese college students in the 1990s as a form of Valentine's Day for young single people.

A giant electronic screen shows the total GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume) from online shopping on Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba's marketplaces Tmall and Taobao on November 11 reaching RMB 10 billion yuan (1.44 billion U.S. dollars) at two minutes during the Tmall 11.11 Global Shopping Festival 2018 at the media center in Shanghai, China, 11 November 2018. [Photo: IC]

E-commerce giant Alibaba caught on to the notion and started to promote it as an annual shopping event just over a decade ago.

It's since become a global phenomenon, with last year's Single Day promotion creating close to 170 billion yuan worth of sales over the course of 24-hours.