BEIJING (Reuters) - China's e-commerce group Alibaba broke a record $ 30 billion in sales at last year's Singles Day shopping festival on Monday.
The group said it broke its record at 4 pm local time (0800 GMT), hours before the end of the shopping festival.
That amount exceeds the volume of sales made by US retailers last year in the four-day period from "Black Friday" to "two Internet."
However, Alibaba's overall sales on Singles Day this year are expected to grow less than last year, when they rose year on year by 27%.
Domestic consumption in China has fallen amid trade tensions with the United States, which has caused growth to fall to its lowest rate in nearly three decades.
The bachelor 's day, which falls on November 11 each year, began at midnight Monday at Chinese universities as a bizarre celebration of celibacy.
However, Jack Ma, founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba, turned bachelors' day into a major shopping event in 2009. Since then, Alibaba's Taobao and Emile business platforms have broken sales figures annually.
In order to continue to make profits, Alibaba is betting on increasing its foreign merchandise offerings, and shoppers can buy discounted items from groceries to cars.