For Westerners, the site is nowhere near as ubiquitous as Amazon or eBay – but in China, Alibaba dwarves its American counterparts in one-day online sales.

Singles Day, an annual online shopping day in China similar to Cyber Monday in the US, has exploded in popularity since 2009. Held on 11 November each year, it draws its name from the "bare sticks" represented by the the four number ones in the date. Last year shoppers spent $9.3bn in one day. This year, Singles Day has eclipsed that amount by $5bn – read on for some of the staggering statistics of China’s passion for online shopping.