Early highlights of Alibaba's 2018 Nov. 11 Global Shopping Festival include: $10B of total GMV settled through Alipay in 1 hour and 48 seconds; $1B of total GMV settled through Alipay in the first 1 minute and 25 seconds; and participation from more than 180,000 brands.

The Nov. 11 shopping festival began in 2009 with participation from just 27 merchants as an event for merchants and consumers to raise awareness of the value in online shopping. Last year, over 140,000 brands and merchants participated in the global shopping event, with consumers spending RMB168.2B during the 24-hour period.