Another record-breaking "Singles Day" shopping promotion has taken place in China.

Online sales reached 10 billion Chinese yuan, or some 1.4 billion US dollars, in just 2-mintues-5-seconds after midnight this morning, breaking last year's record of 3-minutes-1-second.

So-called 'Singles Day,' November 11th, or 1-1-1-1 on the calendar, was a notion first championed by Chinese college students in the 1990s as a form of Valentine's Day for young single people.

E-commerce giant Alibaba caught on to the notion and started to promote it as an annual shopping event just over a decade ago.

It's since become a global phenomenon, with last year's Single Day promotion creating close to 170 billion yuan worth of sales over the course of 24-hours.