China celebrates Singles Day, the anti-Valentine holiday, on Nov. 11 with wallets and credit cards ready. China's unmarried men and women observe Singles Day since the 1990s. Like all holidays, the day has become an excuse for the Chinese to go shopping. Reports said Singles Day in China is one of the biggest online shopping events in the world.

Xinhua news agency described different e-commerce platforms in China preparing for a shopping festival. Tabao.com and Tmall.com were some of the consumer-oriented platforms offering discounts and deals in commemoration of China's Singles Day.

Sales figures broadcasted on a huge electronic screen revealed revenues of over 10 billion yuan by 6am. Applause can be heard from observers as more than 100 million shoppers placed orders online platforms. In comparison to sales in 2012, it took 13 hours for sales to reach the 10 billion mark.

China's Singles Day is being compared to the United States' Cyber Monday. However, for China, single-themed products like the boyfriend body pillows, clothing and wine retailers are giving away big discounts to attract China's 240 million online shoppers.

According to analyst estimates, online sales from Singles Day 2013 are predicted to reach $5 billion. China Market Research Group said sales are expected to rise 20 per cent higher than the previous year's sales.

In the U.S., Cyber Monday has generated $1.5 billion in sales in 2012. According to Adobe, sales for Cyber Monday are expected to reach $2.3 billion for 2013.

China Market Research Group's managing director Shaun Rein said Singles Day has become an important day for retailers. The huge discounts have been the talk of the town with key promotions poised to launch on Singles Day aside from the Chinese New Year.

Aside from singles in China, everybody knows it is the best day to take advantage of great discounts. Mr Rein said that the youth in China were getting frustrated over the high cost of real estate. They are buying things for themselves to keep them happy, Mr Rein added.

He said the Chinese find it more exciting to shop online and buy products not commonly found in local brick and mortar stores. E-commerce platforms like the Alibaba Group which runs Tmall and Taobao, are expected to cash in on Singles Day.

China's Taobao is similar to ebay which specializes in consumer-to-consumer commerce while Tmall brings small and big businesses including brands to consumers comparable to Amazon's Marketplace.

In 2012, Alibaba has processed $3.1 billion transactions on China's Singles Day. Xinhua News Agency reports this number to increase at $4.9 billion in 2013. According to the Financial Times, Alibaba is preparing to process over a hundred million packages from 78 million in the previous year.