China’s biggest shopping day last Friday saw not only an all-time high in spending on Alibaba’s online marketplaces but also a record amount transacted by users of its mobile wallet app, Alipay.
Using Alipay for a wide range of Chinese shopping sites, apps, and also in-store cashless payments, the Singles Day shopping spree on November 11 saw 1.05 billion transactions go through the app, up 48 percent on the same day last year.
At its peak, 1,20,000 transactions per second inundated the wallet app, according to data from Alibaba spin-off company Ant Financial which runs Alipay.