China goes on shopping frenzy on Singles Day.

Perhaps one can deduce that shopping is the best cure for a lonely heart, or a great distraction from the world's developing problems.

Yesterday November 11th is Singles Day in China and the world's second largest economy was on an online spending frenzy.  By day's end, record sales (still to be verified) were reportedly broken.

The country's e-commerce giant Alibaba was reporting US$5 bn of shopping sales in the first hour of Singles Day, with total sales expected to top US$20 billion this year, overshadowing America's equialents of Cyber Monday and Black Friday - the Monday and Friday after Thanksgivin (November 24).

Chinese market - a force to be reckoned with.
Photo: ISPO fair in China.

Singles Day was invented in 1993 by students in Nanjing, the ancient capital, who wanted to celebrate their singleness, and the date 11/11 was chosen because the number one stands for the solitary single.

Every year, thus on this particular day, millions of Chinese go shopping and Chinese companies have turned it into the biggest online shopping day in the world. Alibaba has approximately 440 million online customers.

Singles Day revenue nearly tripled from 2013 to 2015 to the tune of US$14.3 bn grossed on the Alibaba’s shopping sites, Tmall and Taobao; recording, approximately US$357 million were profit.

Alibaba company founder Jack Ma drummed up the enormous business by making Singles Day into a gala event onn November 10  in Shenzhen, the cosmopolitan city across from Hong Kong in Guangdong province.  There was a four-hour show broadcast on national television studded with countless stars, including star couple Victoria and David Beckham, Hollywood star Scarlet Johansson and LA Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant as guests. Pop star Katy Perry was billed as a star attractions but she pulled out at the last minute due to a "family emergency".  Mr. Ma himself even performed a magic act.