Singles' Day raked in $78 billion for Alibaba in 2020 — up almost 10 times from the inaugural Singles' Day shopping event in 2009, which featured just 27 brands. The first Singles' Day sales event in 2009 generated 52 million yuan ($8.1 million) for Alibaba, per Bloomberg.
Last year, the 11-day event saw 250,000 brands participating and generating 498.2 Chinese billion yuan ($78 billion in today's exchange rate) in sales for the company.
The skyrocketing sales come amid rapid growth in the Chinese economy. China's GDP grew almost three times from 5.1 trillion in 2009 to $14.7 trillion in 2020, according to World Bank data.