Kevin Spacey Helps Alibaba Score $1B in 8 Minutes

Every Nov. 11, the Chinese celebrate Singles Day, an homage to the uncoupled—the 11/11 date is "reminiscent of 'bare branches,' the Chinese expression for bachelors and spinsters," notes Bloomberg. But Alibaba has something even bigger to raise a glass to: the fact that it smashed sales records for what's turned into a 24-hour shopping spree during the holiday, raking in $1 billion in gross merchandise volume in the first eight minutes of sales and $10 billion in the first 14 hours, CNBC reports. Analysts say that puts the company on track to bring in $13 billion by the time the sale ends, per the Wall Street Journal.

That $10 billion beats last year's Alibaba record of $9.3 billion for the entire day, and it far surpasses the $2 billion and change that Cyber Monday attracted in the US in 2014. Mobile sales were the biggest draw for customers, making up $2.9 billion (74%) of GMV in the first hour of Wednesday's sale. Even actors Daniel Craig and Kevin Spacey helped out, flying into Beijing to add star power to Singles Day events, Bloomberg notes. "The whole world will witness the power of Chinese consumption this November 11," company CEO Daniel Zhang says, per CNBC. (This news may just sink Alibaba founder Jack Ma into further depression.)