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[00:00.12]What's the biggest online shopping day in the world?
[00:04.28]Not Valentine's Day.
[00:06.28]Not Cyber Monday or Black Friday.
[00:09.68]They are the days that follow Thanksgiving in the U.S.
[00:13.84]and usher in the start of the holiday shopping season.
[00:18.16]The winner is China's Singles' Day,
[00:21.16]celebrated November 11, or 11.11.
[00:26.24]Singles' Day began as a day for unmarried or uncoupled people
[00:31.36]to celebrate their lives.
[00:33.88]Single students, looking for an excuse to buy themselves presents,
[00:39.68]started it on November 11, 1993, reported The Guardian.
[00:46.96]It is symbolized by the four number ones in the date of November 11 ¨C 11.11
[00:54.84]¡ª and is also called Double Eleven,
[00:58.12]in reference to the day it was started, said the BBC.
[01:03.48]It became a major shopping day in 2009.
[01:09.32]The CEO of an online shopping site
[01:12.80]-- Alibaba -- sought to increase sales at the e-commerce company.
[01:18.36]The CEO, Daniel Zhang, launched an annual online sale that day, said Fortune.
[01:26.96]When it first began, "Singles' Day was very much an offline solace
[01:35.16]for actual single people," noted the website Atlas Obscura.
[01:41.44]"A small group of students at Nanjing University
[01:46.20]are said to have chosen 11.11
[01:49.56]as a day that singles could do activities like karaoke together."
[01:54.80]It quickly became a cultural phenomenon.
[01:58.68]Last year, Alibaba sold more than $1 billion worth of products
[02:05.64]in the first three minutes of the sales, reported Bloomberg.
[02:10.64]Total sales on Singles' Day soared to $9 billion within 24 hours.
[02:19.28]That's four times bigger than Cyber Monday in the U.S.,
[02:23.64]which is the Monday after Thanksgiving
[02:26.16]and traditionally a big shopping day.
[02:30.32]By comparison, online sales in the U.S. last year
[02:35.24]on Black Friday were just $1.5 billion, reported TechCrunch.
[02:42.40]Today, Singles' Day is a retail blockbuster.
[02:47.88]Analysts predict that this year,
[02:50.68]sales on China Singles' Day will soar to a new high.
[02:55.88]In the U.S., Dealmoon is a shopping site targeting Chinese-Americans.
[03:03.72]Jennifer Wang is co-founder of the company:
[03:07.72]"We expect to have 3 million people coming to our site for the Singles' Day launch."
[03:12.92]Some observers think Singles' Day could catch on globally.
[03:17.56]In West Hollywood, California, a group launched an American version
[03:23.28]of the event on January 11, 2014, reported Atlas Obscura.
[03:29.88]They want to make 1.11 an official American holiday,
[03:34.60]"a day of recognition for those who find themselves
[03:38.76]on the other side of the couple's fence,"
[03:41.72]according to the website.
[03:43.53]I'm Mary Gotschall.