Singles" Day frenzy of love and dollars China's "Singles" Day" shopping extravaganza used to be all about love, or the lack thereof, in the world's largest lonely hearts club. Alibaba, as befits its status as the nation's biggest ecommerce group, meets both demands. The annual November 11 event has morphed into the world's biggest shopping day, and amid the purchases of cosmetics, clothes, drones and phones China's 250m single adults - more than the entire adult population of the US - are also turning to Taobao, Alibaba's online shopping platform, for love in the form of avatar boyfriends and girlfriends. Rent-a-beau services have been available online for several years, especially around the time of the annual lunar new year holiday when singles will pay top price to head off nagging parents by bringing home a mate that they have hired online, just for the holidays. But now the rent-a-lover business is becoming more regular, with Taobao sellers offering to murmur sweet nothings online, through China's ubiquitous messaging platforms like Tencent's WeChat. Taobao lists nearly 5,000 virtual lovers online. The search terms boyfriend, girlfriend or lover are blocked by Taobao, possibly due to concerns over pornography or prostitution, but shoppers can search for "avatar girl.friend" or other alternatives instead. One Taobao seller's advertisement asks: "Do you feel uncomfortable when seeing others showing off their sweet love messages on Weibo and WeChat while you only receive messages from 10086 [the service number of China Mobile]?" The price is right: it costs as little as Rmb3 ($0.49) per hour to rent a virtual mate online - far less than one might have to spend on shopping for presents for the real thing on Valentine's Day. And unlike in the real world, the boyfriend or girlfriend comes custom made without any irritating habits. What is good for the buyer benefits the merchant too. Last year the People's Daily, the official newspaper of the ruling Communist party, dubbed the $5.8bn pulled in by Alibaba on Singles" Day as "crazy." This year has proved crazier still, with Alibaba smashing last year's full-day record by 1.31pm. Additional reporting by Zhang Yan and Charles Clover