Alibaba smashes sales record on Singles Day, despite concerns of slowing growth

You can’t help but be impressed. Alibaba, which single-handedly turned Singles Day from a simple celebration into the world’s biggest online shopping extravaganza, pulled in gross merchandise value (GMV) of $1bn, just under five minutes into trading. The day is not yet over, but it anticipates $20bn of GMV by the end of the day – 85% bought via mobile phones.  As TechCrunch notes, it’s helpful to put this in perspective – the US Black Friday sales day last year reached $4.5bn, while Cyber Monday hit $3bn in 2015. The west is far, far behind the Chinese in rampant consumerism, especially when it comes to goods bought online.