BEIJING (Reuters) - China's e-commerce giant Alibaba posted a record on Sunday, beating its record sales of last year's singles, surpassing 168 billion yuan ($ 24.15 billion) in less than 16 hours.
Singles Day is the largest e-commerce event in the world, surpassing the US shopping day, known as Black Friday.
The company completed a sales settlement of about 69 billion yuan ($ 9.92 billion) at the first hour of the "Singles Day", up about 21 percent from last year, when the first hour sales were 57 billion yuan. Demand for smartphones and other electronic devices, as well as for staples such as milk powder and diapers, has been on the rise.
The company overtook last year's sales just before 4pm, but the pace is slower than last year, when the 2016 record was broken four hours early in the afternoon.
Despite strong growth, sales are likely to face unfavorable economic factors and new competition from other shopping events, analysts said.
"As the number of promotion events increases annually, 11/11 will not be the only chance to get cheap prices," Reuters quoted David Yep, consulting firm Oliver Wyman as saying.
"Even so, customers who enjoy shopping on that day are still more likely to enjoy it," he added.
The Alibaba Group has traditionally opened the annual event with a huge ceremony this year featuring American singer Mariah Carey, a Japanese artist who plays Beyonce, and a performance by Sirk 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.
