Alibaba beats forecast with 56pc jump in sales, helped by growth in e-commerce, cloud computing
Shares of the company rose 1.1 per cent in New York before earnings were announced to a record US$159.50, giving Alibaba US$408.5 billion in market capitalisation as Asia’s most valuable company.
Alibaba Group Holding beat analysts’ forecasts and posted a 56 per cent jump in its first-quarter revenue, helped by sales growth in cloud computing and its business operating the largest online shopping platforms on the planet.
Sales rose to 50.2 billion yuan (US$7.5 billion) in its first quarter ended June, surpassing the 47.9 billion yuan consensus estimate in a Bloomberg survey. Net profit jumped 96 per cent to 14 billion yuan during the period.
The bulk of the Hangzhou-based company’s revenue came from its core e-commerce business, including the online shopping platforms Taobao, Tmall, and its international business units like AliExpress and Lazada in Southeast Asia, where sales rose 58 per cent to 43 billion yuan from last year.
Alibaba, which also owns the South China Morning Post, earns revenue from e-commerce by offering paying merchants consumer insights and advertising options to better target and engage customers.