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World's biggest shopping day tops $20 billion

It was a record-setting sales day during Singles Day in China. VCG/VCG via Getty Images

The biggest shopping day of the season has been a record-setter, CNN reported Saturday.

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But it's not Black Friday or Cyber Monday.

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba said Saturday that sales topped $20 billion of sales on Singles Day, topping the $17.8 billion collected during last year's sale.

Singles Day has for years racked up more sales than Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined, CNN reported.

By comparison, American shoppers last year spent more than $5 billion shopping online on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday, according to Adobe, which tracks such data. Shoppers also spent $3.39 billion on Cyber Monday last year, the largest single online shopping day in the U.S., Adobe said.

Earlier Saturday, Alibaba said shoppers spent $1 billion in just 2 minutes and $18 billion in 13 hours.

Singles Day started out as an informal holiday in China celebrating single people on a day that epitomizes not being paired off: 11/11. Alibaba turned it into a festival of discount deals in 2009.