Beijing, Nov 14 (IANS): Chinese online payment clearinghouse NetsUnion and card payment giant China UnionPay reported online payments worth 22.32 trillion yuan (about $3.48 trillion) during this year's Singles' Day shopping spree from November 1 to 11.

During the 11-day period, over 27 billion transactions were processed by the platforms, surging 17.96 per cent year-on-year, with the total value involved up 14.98 per cent year on year, said the People's Bank of China, reports Xinhua news agency.

Payment services were safe, efficient and convenient, and the scale of related business, as well as residents' consumption, increased steadily during the shopping festival, according to the central bank.

The Singles' Day shopping festival was first initiated by Alibaba on November 11, 2009, and has since become one of the world's largest online shopping sprees.

Like Black Friday, two weeks later, Singles' Day is especially popular in Spain, which has briefly overtaken the US as the second-largest market for AliExpress' online sales -- behind Russia.