China sees online payments soar during Singles' Day shopping spree

Total transactions and their monetary value surged during China's "Double 11" shopping spree, the biggest discount period of the year, data from the central bank showed on Nov 12.

Online payments through NetsUnion, the Chinese online-payment clearinghouse, and China UnionPay, a card-payment giant, soared 19.6 percent year-on-year to 1.77 trillion yuan (about $267.22 billion) on Nov 11, according to the People's Bank of China (PBOC).

A total of 2.24 billion transactions were completed through the two platforms on the same day, an increase of 26.08 percent year-on-year.

The two platforms processed a record high of 109,000 transactions per second at the peak time on Nov 11, up 26.19 percent from a year earlier, the PBOC said.

From Nov 1 to 11, online payment through NetsUnion rose 42.59 percent year-on-year to 14.1 trillion yuan, while the average daily payment of China UnionPay climbed 36.78 percent compared with that in October.

The PBOC said it will strengthen the construction of payment infrastructure and help the banking and non-banking payment institutions provide safe and convenient services.