Mubasher: Chinese retail giant Alibaba on Monday said that its sales for its annual Singles’ Day shopping event recorded nearly $23 billion in the first nine hours.

Sales hit $1 billion in the first minute and eight seconds, reaching 158.31 billion Chinese yuan (CNY) ($22.63 billion), during the first nine hours of the event, 25% higher from the same point last year, Alibaba said.

The $486-billion-worth retailer projected more than 500 million users to make purchases this year, or 100 million higher than last year.

Alibaba recorded online sales of $30 billion across its platforms last year on Singles’ Day, also known as “Double Eleven.”

“The younger generation is buying more, and the customer from the rural areas, the customers from lower-tier cities, they are buying imported products,” Alibaba’s Tmall general manager Alvin Liu said.

This came as the retail company plans to sell $15 billion worth of shares in Hong Kong.