Yuan Singular Sensation

America may have lost its edge in a few areas such as manufacturing and education, but we thought we were untouchable when it came to dropping insane amounts of cash on marketing department-hatched Internet shopping pseudo-holidays. Well, we just got crushed. During its Single’s Day sensation, Alibaba sold $9.3 billion worth of merchandise. “That’s way more than everything people bought on their computers during the five-day U.S. Thanksgiving holiday last year that included both Black Friday and Cyber Monday.” From AdAge: Five takeaways from Alibaba’s record-busting shopping fest.

+ “For Alibaba’s staff, long hours fueled by Red Bull and Starbucks — there is one on the Alibaba campus, which is also home to a gym, a library, and a post office — have become the norm over the past few weeks. About 11,000 staff have been involved in the holiday’s execution.” Quartz takes you inside Alibaba’s war room on the world’s biggest online shopping day.