HANGZHOU, China/HONG KONG -- Alibaba Group Holdings' Singles Day shopping topped $74 billion in total sales Wednesday, a huge increase from last year's record high that suggests robust consumer health in the world's second-largest economy.
According to data published by Alibaba just after midnight Thursday, buyers had snapped up 498.2 billion yuan ($74 billion) of goods. Even the accumulated transaction volume after the first half-hour surpassed the full sales total of last year's event, when merchants on Alibaba's platforms sold 268.4 billion yuan of items.
