Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba’s revenue jumps 32%

SHANGHAI, China – Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba saw its revenue jump 32% year-on-year for the quarter ending in December, it said in a statement Thursday, January 28, despite slowing growth in the world’s second-largest economy. 

Alibaba, which dominates the consumer-to-consumer market in China, said revenue reached $5.33 billion (34.54 billion yuan) in the December quarter, beating an average forecast of 33.2 billion yuan in a survey of analysts by Bloomberg News.

Investors have hammered the New York-listed shares of Alibaba as a proxy for China’s falling growth, weakening currency and domestic stock market turmoil.

China’s economy grew 6.9% in 2015, the slowest rate since 1990. Fourth-quarter growth alone slowed to 6.8%, its worst since the global financial crisis in early 2009.

“Alibaba Group had an outstanding quarter, reaching a milestone of over 400 million annual active buyers and continuing our unrivalled leadership in mobile,” Alibaba chief executive Daniel Zhang said in the statement.

Alibaba said its net income attributable to shareholders more than doubled, surging 111% on the year to $1.93 billion for the three-month period.

Its closely-watched gross merchandise volume (GMV) – a measure of value for online sales – was $149 billion for the period, up 23 percent year-on-year. 

The quarter included China’s November 11 “Singles Day,” said to be the world’s biggest online shopping spree, when Alibaba saw $14.3 billion worth of goods settled through its online payments unit. – Rappler.com