China tops direct overseas purchase market of S. Korea in nine months

SEOUL, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- China topped direct overseas purchase market of South Korea in the first nine months of this year as more South Koreans purchased goods through Chinese e-commerce companies, Yonhap news agency said Monday citing Statistics Korea data.

Direct overseas purchase by South Koreans came in at 4.79 trillion won (3.7 billion U.S. dollars) for the first nine months of this year, up 20.4 percent compared to the same period of last year.

Direct overseas purchase of goods through Chinese e-commerce companies more than doubled to 2.22 trillion won (1.7 billion dollars) in the January-September period, accounting for almost half of the total.

It was followed by the United States with 1.39 trillion won (1.1 billion dollars), a drop of 9.7 percent year on year.

China was expected to take the lead of the South Korean direct overseas purchase market this year on the back of fast growth of Chinese e-commerce companies such as AliExpress, the report said.