Alibaba Posts 32 Percent Jump in Revenue

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba saw its revenue jump 32 percent year-on-year for the quarter ending in December, it said in a statement Thursday, 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 (CNY 34.54 billion or roughly Rs. 36,155 crores) in the December quarter, beating an average forecast of CNY 33.2 billion 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 percent in 2015, the slowest rate since 1990. Fourth-quarter growth alone slowed to 6.8 percent, 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 percent 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 (roughly Rs. 10,16,477 crores) 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 (roughly Rs. 97,554 crores) worth of goods settled through its online payments unit.