Alibaba’s Singles Day beats Prime Day sales

HANGZHOU, China ― Alibaba says its Singles Day sales generated some $13 billion in sales within its first hour alone—nearly double the estimated haul of Amazon’s Prime Day in July. The first-hour sales represent a 32% increase from last year’s Singles Day, an annual event aimed at single young people. Amazon doesn’t publish sales figures from Prime Day, but Internet Retailer estimated this year’s total at $7.16 billion over the two-day event, a major boost from last year’s estimate of $4.19 billion. Alibaba, however, took in more than $38 billion all told on Singles Day.