Early sales figures for Alibaba Group's (BABA  ) Singles Day sale are looking fantastic for the Hangzhou-based e-commerce giant. Alibaba raked in a monumental amount of revenue in the first few hours of the sale, resonating with investors who helped drive a modest rally on November 2.

Singles Day, held on November 11, is an unofficial Chinese holiday that celebrates single people. The holiday traces its origins to Nanjing University, starting in 1993 and spreading across China through other universities over subsequent years. The holiday quickly became the single largest shopping event in the world. Alibaba and its contemporaries have capitalized heavily on the popularity of the holiday, raking in billions of dollars each year.

In the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic, Alibaba decided to hold two Singles Day sales to help retailers after months of lockdown and reduced sales.

"This year the festival expands from 'single' to 'double,' enabling merchants to double up on promoting their products across China not just once, but twice," said Jiang Fan of Alibaba.

In the first two hours of Alibaba's first round of sales (which took place from November 1-3), the company netted $1.49 billion in sales. $1.49 billion in two hours isn't bad, but it's actually a step down from previous years; last year, Alibaba netted $1 billion in the first minute of its Singles Day sale. In total, Alibaba made $38.4 billion in sales in 2019. For comparison, Amazon managed to rake in $6 billion worth of sales on Prime Day last year.

Investors seemed to be excited at the sales figures, driving Alibaba's share price slightly higher on November 2, but ultimately the company didn't see too much of a rally due to a mishap with an impending IPO. Ant Group, formed by Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma, had its initial public offering suspended by the Chinese government after regulators raised concerns that there were issues with the company's ability to meet listing requirements. The IPO flop of Ant Group, which Alibaba owns a third of, caused the company's share price to drop overnight, ending up 7.57% down by market open on Wednesday. Alibaba's shares dropped again on Thursday after weaker than expected quarterly results.