Chinese technology giant Alibaba Group Holding has invested another US$634 million in its e-commerce subsidiary Lazada amid intensifying competition.

The injection – the group’s third this year – takes its investment in Lazada to more than $1.8 billion this year.

Since taking the controlling stake in 2016, Alibaba has poured about $7.4 million into the Singapore-based e-commerce unit.

This latest move reflects the increasingly fierce competition brought by major rivals TikTok and Shopee in the Southeast Asian market.

TikTok, owned by Chinese tech group ByteDance, has announced it would acquire a 75 per cent share in Tokopedia, an e-commerce unit of Indonesia’s tech firm GoTo. This will allow it to re-enter the country’s online shopping market following the ban of e-commerce transactions on social media.

Singaporean tech group Sea, which operates Shopee, has also announced plans to increase investment in its live commerce business, according to Nikkei.