Alibaba (BABA) Breaks 2013 'Singles Day' Record in Record Time

(Updated - November 11, 2014 11:13 AM EST)

As expected, 'Singles Day' proved to be a boon for Alibaba (NYSE: BABA). The company announced that total sales for its 11/11 shopping festival exceeded RMB 57.1 billion, or U.S. $9.3 billion, of which 42.6% was generated from mobile. This is up 58% from 2013's total of RMB36.2 billion, or U.S. $5.9 billion. The company broke last year's record with 10 hours to go.

The total Singles Day sales also easily exceeded 2013 Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday online sales of US $5.3 billion.

Alibaba made the announcement on Twitter:

Alibaba said smartphone maker Xiaomi and home appliance manufacturer Haier were the early winners this year. Xiaomi’s Tmall.com store hit RMB 1 billion ($163 million) in sales by noon. Last year, Xiaomi’s Tmall.com had MB 550 million ($89.9 million) in GMV.

Alibaba said 12 Tmall storefronts topped RMB 100 million ($16.3 million) in sales by noon on Nov. 11; 40 storefronts had broken the RMB 50 million ($8.15 million) mark.

“I don’t think any other company in China can create a day like this,” Alibaba Executive Vice Chairman Joe Tsai told reporters at the Alibaba campus. “We are about making it easy to do business everywhere by helping merchants on our platform reach consumers in the most efficient way, and we are very happy to see that consumers are coming to our platforms to make purchases,” he said.

Despite the positive sales results, shares of Alibaba are selling-off on a 'buy the rumor... sell the news' trade. Traders heavily-accumulated shares into the event and are now taking profits. Shares last traded down 3% to $115.60.

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