Alibaba boasts $56 billion sales as post-virus Singles’ Day gets into full swing

China’s Alibaba said orders on its e-commerce platforms during the Singles’ Day shopping extravaganza had exceeded $56 billion by Wednesday morning, as lockdown-weary consumers splashed out on as many as 16 million discounted goods.

The world’s biggest sales event – eclipsing Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the United States – spans four main days this year, and so far has brought sellers 16 times as many orders by value than Amazon.com Inc’s two-day global Prime Day last month.

Such is its size that its performance is widely considered indicative of China’s post-virus economic recovery.