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How Alibaba turned an obscure, made-up Chinese holiday into a $17.8 billion shopping extravaganza that's bigger than Black Friday

How Alibaba turned an obscure Chinese holiday into a sales juggernaut.

  • Alibaba raked in over $8 billion in sales in the first hour of its made-up marketing holiday, "Singles Day."
  • Singles Day has its roots in an obscure Chinese holiday for students who had not married yet.
  • Alibaba CEO Jack Ma capitalized expertly on the holiday, and now, Singles Day dwarfs traditional American shopping holidays like Black Friday, and is much larger than Amazon's "Prime Day."
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