$38 bln in one day: New record for Alibaba's Singles' Day
China's 24-hour shopping extravaganza has wrapped up, with retail giant Alibaba cashing in another sales record.
The ecommerce heavyweight sold goods worth $38.4 billion in this year's Singles' Day - more than six times the amount made in the U.S. on Black Friday last year.
This year Alibaba brought in Taylor Swift to headline its gala event, after her latest album broke records in China.
Chinese shoppers then snapped up food supplements, facial masks and baby milk power.
Alibaba's data shows that brands like L'Oreal and Nestle were among the biggest winners.
In all, fifteen brands made sales of over 1 billion yuan.
That included phonemakers Huawei and Apple, and clothing brands Nike and Uniqlo.
But while the retail giant dominates online shopping in China, Alibaba has challenges too.
Singles Day sales growth eased to 26% this year - its weakest since the event started in 2009, in a reflection of a slowing Chinese economy.
Though that still beat analyst forecasts of 20-25%.
Alibaba has used more aggresive discounts and livestreaming promotions this year to attract more customers from smaller towns.
Now investors will be poring over the numbers ahead of its IPO.
The firm is expected to sell up to $15 billion worth of shares in Hong Kong later this month.
