TEMPO.CO, Beijing - China's online retail giant Alibaba Group Holdings Limited has booked record sales. During the first hour of its annual "Singles' Day" shopping event, the company claimed that it has pulled in a record breaking US$9.3billion in sales.

Singles' Day is a celebration for people who have no spouse in China. It is also the world's biggest online retail sales day every year and marked as a 'counter-attack' from single people towards Valentine's Day.

Singles' Day topped the sales of other shopping-related event such as the 'Black Friday' and 'Cyber Monday', which are celebrated a day after Thanksgiving in the United States. As reported by CNN Money on Tuesday, November 11, 2014, last year's Singles' Day total online sales in China reached US$ 8 billion. This number is higher than the total sales value of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which was US$ 3 billion.

Founder and CEO of Alibaba Jack Ma, is pleased to know that his company has managed to break the sales record of Singles’ Day. During the celebration, Alibaba gave tremendous discounts. "We routinely give special discounts every year for all our products," said Ma as reported by BBC News. He is optimistic that the company can sell 200 million packages in a one day celebration. The company aims to achieve US$ 8.2 billion in sales this year, or 43 percent higher than last year’s US$ 5.75 billion.

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