Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE: BABA) announced that it generated nearly US$12 billion of gross merchandise volume (GMV) settled through Alipay in the first two hours of the 2017 11.11 Global Shopping Festival, which saw participation from more than 140,000 brands.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171110005671/en/

Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai (Photo: Business Wire)

The annual shopping festival kicked off today at midnight in China. Early highlights of this year’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival included:

• US$1 billion (RMB6.6 billion) of total GMV was settled through Alipay in the first 2 minutes and 1 second
• US$11.9 billion (RMB78.8 billion) of total GMV was settled through Alipay in the first 2 hours, and mobile GMV settled through Alipay accounted for 91% of total GMV
• Alibaba Cloud processed 325,000 orders per second at peak within the first hour
• Alipay processed 256,000 payment transactions per second at peak within the first hour
• In the first hour, more than 60 brands each generated more than RMB100 million (US$15.1 million), including leading international brands Apple, Estée Lauder, Gap, L’Oreal, Nike, Samsung, Uniqlo and Zara, among others

Annual 11.11 Gala

In the hours leading up to the shopping event, Alibaba hosted its third annual gala to celebrate the official launch of the festival. Viewers were able to experience the gala live via Youku, the Tmall and Taobao mobile apps, YouTube, as well as across China through Zhejiang TV, Beijing TV and Shenzhen TV. This year, the gala featured celebrity appearances and performances from Pharrell Williams, Nicole Kidman, Maria Sharapova and Jessie J, among others.

For additional content from the event, please follow the Alibaba Group official Twitter account at www.twitter.com/AlibabaGroup, or visit the Media Resources page on Alibaba corporate news site Alizila with background, factsheets and content related to this year's 11.11.

About the 11.11 Global Shopping Festival

The 11.11 shopping festival began in 2009 with participation from just 27 merchants as an event for merchants and consumers to raise awareness of the value in online shopping. Last year, nearly 100,000 merchants participated in the global shopping event, with consumers spending USD 17.8 billion (RMB 120.7 billion) during the 24-hour period. For additional history and facts from last year’s festival, as well as the latest news and updates on the 2017 11.11 Global Shopping Festival, please visit Alizila: http://www.alizila.com.