Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd said on Wednesday the value of merchandise it has sold so far during the Singles’ Day online shopping extravaganza had surpassed last year’s total of $9.3 billion. The company, which six years ago turned Nov. 11 into China’s equivalent of U.S. shopping event Cyber Monday, could see this year’s sales rise to as much as $13.8 billion, a growth of almost 50 percent from last year’s total, according to research firm IDC.