China smartphone maker Xiaomi claimed to have sold an astonishing 1.16 million Mi units on Single’s Day in China, which has become the largest online shopping day on the planet.

The holiday falls on 11 November – 11/11 – and was introduced in the 1990s as a variation on Valentine’s Day for people without romantic partners. It also is referred to in China as the Double 11 festival. The association with shopping started in 2009 when some merchants began offering big sale promotions on Alibaba’s Tmail.com.

The day to celebrate being single is now the biggest online bazaar in the world, outselling both Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the US.

To put Xiaomi’s 24-hour sales into perspective, Strategy Analytics said the vendor shipped 18 million phones in the whole of Q3 to secure a 3.9 per cent global market share and claim fifth spot in terms of shipments. The company, which is just four years old, is the top smartphone brand in China.

Xiaomi VP Hugo Barra tweeted that sales yesterday totalled CNY1.56 billion ($254 million).

Meanwhile, Alibaba reported sales of CNY57.1 billion ($9.3 billion) on its e-commerce sites yesterday.