Singles Day sees biggest online shopping rampage yet

The Alibaba Group, which owns China's largest online shopping platforms, hit a turnover of 35 billion yuan ($5.74 billion) on November 11, or Singles Day, which has become an annual shopping fest, according to zjol.com.cn.

1.6 million bras were snapped up by online customers within an hour of the start of the shopping carnival at midnight of November 11, which if piled up would be three times the height of Mount Qomolangma (commonly known in the West as Mount Everest) according to the Dahe Daily.

Within nine hours, customers had bought 500,000 cans of milk powder and 66 million diapers, allowing the sopping up of liquid equal to approximately six West Lakes, a famous landmark in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.

As buyers complained about the crowded services, sellers and delivery services went all out in response to the one-day spurt.

"The customer may call at any time, so customer service personnel should be always online," said a customer service supervisor surnamed Jing from a Henan-based online shop, who explained their employees slept only three hours on November 11 and had to take turns to go to the toilet.

The annual online shopping carnival was initiated by taobao.com in 2009, with the one-day turnover increasing from 100 million yuan in 2009 to 19.1 billion yuan in 2012, according to people.com.cn.