(Yicai Global) Nov. 12 -- China's e-commerce sector is booming with new companies entering the field while most consumers say that they have been spending as usual during the latest Double Eleven, according to two reports.

As of October, over 1.3 million new e-commerce companies have been registered this year, up 79 percent from a year ago as the digital economy grows, corporate information platform Tianyancha wrote in a report published yesterday. The total rose to 3.8 million.

But the demand doesn't seem to expand as fast. Recruitment platform Liepin revealed that some 51 percent of survey participants said that their consumption has been similar to that of the previous Double 11 shopping festival, according to a report released yesterday. Almost 58 percent of them said that they are spending less than CNY1,000 (USD151) to fulfill orders on Nov. 11.

The bestsellers may have changed though. Some 47 percent of the respondents said that they have placed more emphasis on healthcare-related goods and increased their spend on epidemic prevention products. Meanwhile, few people were spending money on buying trips amid travel restrictions.

Southern China is the heart of China's e-commerce business. The manufacturing hub of Guangdong province is home to about one-fifth of the sector's firms, the Tianyancha report shows. Other popular locations are eastern Shanghai, Zhejiang's Yiwu, Fujian's Shishi, Jiangsu's Kunshan and Shandong province.

Southern China is also the center of overseas trade. Among the country's 570,000 cross-border e-commerce companies, almost 70 percent are located in Guangdong, following by Shanghai.

China has more than 39,000 live-streaming firms, according to Tianyancha. The No. 1 ranking is a tie as both Zhejiang and Liaoning provinces have over 5,000 such companies each.

Editor: Emmi Laine