China's online shopping binge predicts to smash over $30b

BEIJING - Sales of China's biggest online shopping festival is projected to hit over $32 billion this year, according to a report released by the global app market data provider App Annie.

App Annie also forecasted that the shopping frenzy will break the world record in mobile e-commerce sales.

Last year, Alibaba Group, China's e-commerce giant, spread the shopping festival to the Western market, with downloads of its app AliExpress surging in the United States and Britain.

The shopping spree, also known as Singles' Day or Double 11, falls on Nov 11 every year and sales in 2017 hit 168.2 billion yuan in 24 hours on Tmall Global Shopping Festival.