Beijing, Nov 12 (IANS): Chinese conglomerate Alibaba Group has generated $84.5 billion (540 billion yuan) in gross merchandise volume (GMV) from its annual 11:11 shopping event -- an 8.5 per cent increase from last year.

The '11.11 Global Shopping Festival', that began in 2009 with participation from just 27 merchants, saw more than 290,000 brands participating this year.

"Over the last 12 years, 11.11 has showcased the tremendous consumption power of Chinese consumers and pushed boundaries for the global retail sector," said Chris Tung, Chief Marketing Officer of Alibaba Group.

"This year's festival marks a new chapter for 11.11. We believe we must leverage the power of 11.11 to encourage sustainable development and promote inclusiveness to consumers, merchants and partners across our ecosystem," he said in a statement.

Over the last year, tech giants like Alibaba have faced constant scrutiny from the Chinese government.

Earlier this year, Alibaba was fined a record 18.2 billion yuan fine for breaching China's antitrust regulations and "abusing (its) market dominance".

"Innovation and regulation often go hand-in-hand -- it's what ensures the development of a healthy and fair economy," a company spokesperson told ZDNet on Friday.

"No matter where we operate in the world, we will always comply with all applicable laws and regulations and continue to stay compliant in light of any regulatory changes," the spokesperson said.

This year marked the largest Singles' Day shopping festival on Tmall, with a record 290,000 brands participating and more than 14 million types of commodities offering discounts.

This was also the greenest Singles' Day shopping festival on JD.com, which introduced various measures, including developing recyclable packaging, deploying new-energy cargo vans and using photovoltaic power generation in warehousing, to lower carbon emissions and the impact on environment, reports Xinhua news agency.

Chinese labels are also gaining traction among overseas buyers, with sportswear brand Erke recording sevenfold sales growth to foreign markets via Tmall and Taobao during this year's campaign.

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