Happy Singles Day!

Today is Singles Day, the biggest shopping day of the year in China. Singles Day falls on November 11th because the written date is all lonely, lonely ones: 11/11. From the BBC:

E-commerce giant Alibaba has broken its own record for sales on China’s Singles Day, the world’s biggest online shopping event. About half way through the 24-hour-long sale, the site surpassed the 57.1bn yuan worth of sales ($8.96bn; £5.91bn) made during the entire event last year. Alibaba said more than $1bn was spent within eight minutes of midnight, which is when the sale starts. Singles Day is held on 11 November and is a major event for Chinese retailers. In comparison, sales on Cyber Monday, which is the biggest online shopping day in the US, hit $1.35bn, according to data analytics firm ComScore.

Chinese singles often buy themselves extravagant presents on Singles Day, ostensibly as solace for being alone.