SHANGHAI, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- China's e-commerce giant Alibaba Monday said the Singles' Day sales on its online shopping platforms reached a record 213.5 billion yuan (30.7 billion U.S. dollars).

The total sales on its platforms including Tmall and Taobao on Sunday represented an annual increase of about 27 percent from 168.2 billion yuan a year ago, Alibaba said.

Alibaba launched the annual online shopping promotion on Nov. 11, 2009, a day celebrated by many Chinese young people as Singles' Day.

Sales of Tmall's first shopping festival totaled about 52 million yuan and the number has been growing ever since with increasingly more consumers turn to online shopping.

According to Alibaba, more than 19,000 overseas brands from 75 countries and regions have participated in this year's online shopping spree in China.