Chinese consumers spend billions in 'Singles Day' shopping binge

China's smartphone-wielding masses unleashed billions of dollars in e-commerce spending Saturday as they rushed to snap up bargains on "Singles Day" -- billed as the world's biggest one-day online shopping festival. Also known as "Double 11" for the November 11 date, the event launched in 2009 by e-commerce giant Alibaba kicked off at midnight and ended up shattering the previous year's sales mark, as it does every year. Eighteen hours later, at 6 pm (1000 GMT) on Saturday, Alibaba said the gross value of sales processed by its online payment system Alipay was nearing $21 billion -- roughly equivalent to the annual economic output of Honduras or Afghanistan.

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