SEOUL, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's online overseas sales growth slowed down last year on softer demand from China, a government report showed Friday.

The overseas direct sales in the cyberspace amounted to 2.95 trillion won (2.73 billion U.S. dollars) in 2017, up 28.7 percent from the previous year, according to Statistics Korea.

The figure maintained a double-digit increase, but it was slower than the rises of 85.5 percent in 2015 and 82 percent in 2016 respectively.

The slower growth came as direct online sales to China grew at a slower pace.

Direct sales to China in the cyberspace advanced 29 percent to 2.31 trillion won (2.14 billion U.S. dollars) in 2017, after more than doubling in 2015 and 2016.

Direct online sales to the United States and Japan increased 17.1 percent and 13.9 percent each last year.

Meanwhile, direct online purchase from overseas countries jumped 17.6 percent over the year to 2.24 trillion won (2.07 billion U.S. dollars) in 2017, topping the 2 trillion-won level for the first time.

The growth rate of online purchase got faster from 3.3 percent in 2015 to 12.1 percent in 2016.