Billions have been spent on purchasing online within minutes during the “singles day” in China

Chinese consumers spent a record 91.2 billion yuan (14.3 billion USD, 9.4 billion pounds) online during the 24 hours of Singles Day this year, cementing the e-commerce extravaganza as the biggest day for internet shopping on the global retail calendar.

The 60pc sales growth exceeded expectations, as market research firm IDC had predicted that Alibaba's sales during Singles Day 2015 would rise by 52pc to 87 billion yuan.

Last year's record for online spending on Singles Day was matched before midday, with retail giant Alibaba clocking up 57.1 billion yuan (9 billion USD, 5.9 billionpounds) worth of sales by 11.49am local time. (MTI, Trebitsch Péter)