When a few college students jokingly declared Nov. 11 a National Singles Day in the 90s in China, they would never be able to imagine that they were creating the biggest online shopping spree in the world. It started as a way for young people to make fun of themselves as being single and invite other single friends to have fun at bars, restaurants and karaoke rooms. They chose 11/11 because 1 is the loneliest number, etc. Then businesses began to take notice.

In 2009, online retail giant Alibaba announced it would be selling everything at half price on taobao.com on Nov. 11. It was the first time for Chinese single men and women, and indeed married people, too, to enjoy the huge discounts in online shopping on the Singles Day. Over the last few years, Alibaba, JD and other Chinese e-commerce companies all expanded their one-day discounts, and sales grew dramatically.

In 2014, Alibaba Group scored $5.71 billion on November 11, setting a new record for the e-commerce giant since it started the Singles Day sales five years ago. That was much higher than the combined $3.7 billion online sales of Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday from desktop computers in the U.S.A.

1. In 2009 Alibaba began to sell everything at half price at taobao.com on Nov. 11.回答


2. Some companies like Alibaba expanded their two days discounts and sales grew dramatically.回答


3. In 2014, Alibaba scored $4.71 billion on November 11.回答


4.Thanksgiving Day has got the best selling。回答


5. They chose 11/11 because 1 is the loneliest number.回答

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