Alibaba set to take in $20bn from Singles Day in biggest shopping day ever

Chinese commerce giant Alibaba is expected to make sales of over $20bn on Friday as it launched its annual Singles Day, claiming it to be the world's largest shopping event.

After seven minutes of the sales opening on Friday, the company had already sold $1.47bn worth of products and is expected to easily surpass the record haul of $14.4bn from 2015.

The marketplace has gained most of its sales from foreign brands such as Apple, New Balance and Nike, as well as having recently introduced new technology items such as experimentation with the likes of augmented and virtual reality.

While it was initially set up as a celebration for China's young singletons, Alibaba converted it into one of the country's biggest shopping days in 2009.

"Today is the single day and Alibaba is smashing it with a full blow," said Naeem Aslam from Think Markets.

"The online bonanza for Alibaba touched $9 billion in sales in less than eight hours. If you dissect further in this, the importance of online transaction for Alibaba becomes even more significant because more than one billion was transacted in the first five minutes."

In the countdown to the official launch of the sales day, Alibaba invited special guests to a televised gala, including David and Victoria Beckham, Kobe Bryant and musicians One Republic,

The company has faced scrutiny in the past for allegedly doctoring its profit numbers from the annual Singles Day, and the US Securities and Exchange Commission confirmed it would be looking into the company's numbers in May.