Sales records for Alibaba's Double 11 shopping festival are on display during the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, East China's Zhejiang Province on October 19 Photo: Zhang Hongpei/GT

The island of Taiwan saw the largest increase in purchases during this year'sSingles' Day shopping festival on November 11, the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council said, quoting media reports.

Ma Xiaoguang, spokesperson of the office, said at Wednesday's press conference that the fast-growing mainland e-commerce market not only provides convenient services to Taiwan residents, but also creates significant business opportunities for Taiwan enterprises, which helps develop cross-Straits e-commerce cooperation.

Ma did not provide specific data on spending by Taiwan consumers during the festival, also known as Double 11.

China's e-commerce platform Alibaba Group, which turned the day for single Chinese youngsters to an annual shopping extravaganza, announced new sales records for the shopping spree.

Alibaba raked in the first 10 billion yuan ($1.43 billion) in sales in 96 seconds - faster than the 125 seconds last year - after discounts on everything from toilet paper to furniture and cosmetics took effect.

According to reports, earlier data also showed that spending by consumers in the island of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao grew the fastest in the country, followed by less developed regions such as Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region and Central China's Henan Province.

Global Times