SEOUL - 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) 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) 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), 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.