BEIJING - Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group said on Monday it will invest 5 billion yuan ($732 million) over the next five years in its online payments subsidiaryAlipay.com Co Ltd as part of its effort to maintain its lead over rivals Tencent Holdings and EBay Inc.

The new funds, according to Alibaba, will be used to improve the security of its payment infrastructure, the development of payment products and to attract new customers.

The company said it would also commit additional resources to online safety and security, risk and data management, as well as innovation in new technologies such as mobile payments.