China's e-commerce giant, Ali Baba, made sales of 69 billion yuan ($ 9.92 billion) in the first hour of the annual bachelor's day on Sunday, up about 21 percent from a year ago when the first-time sales hit 57 billion yuan.
Singles Day is the biggest e-commerce event worldwide, and last year its sales totaled 168 billion yuan ($ 24.15 billion).
The Alibaba Group has traditionally launched the annual event with a grand ceremony this year featuring American singer Mariah Carey, a Japanese artist who plays Beyoncé and a show for the circus du Soleil.
This is expected to be the company's last single day under the chairmanship of its founder and chairman, Jack Ma.
The group said in September that chief executive Daniel Chang would be chairman next year.
While sales are growing steadily, the group's share plunged 16 percent this year amid a state of economic uncertainty as a result of growing trade disputes between China and the United States.
Earlier this month, Alibaba adjusted its forecast for full-year revenue, which has worried investors. The company said expensive commodity sales would be adversely affected.
To offset this, the company will earn less revenue than its platforms in the near term to retain brands and new buyers, the company said.
This year, Alibaba said about 180,000 brands were participating in the singles day and sales were approaching $ 20 billion by 10 am local time.
Singles Day
The Chinese began celebrating the "bachelor day" of the 1990s in universities to entertain themselves and give each other a chance to look for an ideal partner, but over time new habits entered into the day, including e-shopping to share gifts.
Today, electronic stores in China offer attractive offers on clothing, cosmetics, smart phones, laptops and more.
People are eager to buy what they want to buy from websites, especially "Alibaba", as soon as possible before the quantity runs out, because there are a huge number of customers on this day, to benefit from discounts on the price of goods.
Singles in China on 11-11 (November 11) chose to celebrate Singles Day because of the repetition of figure 1 and its reference to unity.
