Many Americans are spending their free time and even time they should be working, shopping online for what has become known as Cyber Monday. But, it's not even close to the biggest online shopping day on Earth which, as it turns out, has nothing to do with Christmas.

According to a story published in the Washington Post, November 11 is the biggest online shopping day on earth.

The holiday driving this massive online shopping spree is Singles Day, a holiday celebrated in China. Online retailers offer massive discounts and shoppers spend incredible amounts of money to take advantage of the savings.

Most people in the US haven't even heard of Singles Day. The 'holiday' got started as a joke by some Chinese college students in the 1990s as sort of an anti-Valentines Day for those who wanted to lament about being single.

Alibaba, China's largest online retailer, took the informal holiday to an extreme in 2009 by offering special deals to coincide with Singles Day on November 11.

This year, Alibaba's online sales reached 14.3 billion dollars. That's four times the amount spent last year in the US on Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined. Alibaba represents 80 percent of online sales, so there was also an enormous amount of money spent with other Chinese online shopping sites.

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