Alibaba earnings beat estimates for fiscal first quarter

Alibaba, China’s top e- commerce firm, beat analyst’s estimates with a 56 percent rise in first- quarter revenue, driven by growth in online sales, which make up most of its business.

Thursday’s results show that Alibaba Group Holding, one of Asia’s most valuable companies, is benefiting from more and more Chinese buying an increasing proportion of everything from food to clothing to luxury items online.

Alibaba’s stock is up by more than 81 percent this year, lifted by steady increases in revenue for its commerce business and strong growth in its cloud computing and entertainment units, even as investments in offline stores are yet to pay off.

Alibaba’s revenue rose to 50.1 billion yuan ($ 7.51 billion) for the three months ended June 30, compared with analysts’ average estimate of 47.7 billion yuan.

“Our technology is driving significant growth across our business and strengthening our position beyond core commerce,” Chief Executive Daniel Zhang said in a statement.

Revenue from Alibaba’s core e- commerce business made up 86 percent of total revenue, up from 73 percent in the same period a year prior.

In the cloud business, revenue grew 96 percent to 2.4 billion yuan, with total paying customers breaking the 1 million mark for the first time, up from 577,000 a year earlier.

Alibaba’s cloud business boosted its total global data centers to 17 during the first quarter, with the addition of two centers in India and Indonesia.

Revenue in the entertainment busi- ness rose by 30 percent to 4 billion yuan.

Net income attributable to the company’s shareholders nearly doubled to $ 2.17 billion, or 83 cents per share.

Shares of Chinese e-commerce companies, including Alibaba and JD.com Inc, have outperformed the market in 2017, buoyed by positive revenue growth around June sales events and overseas expansion developments. In June Alibaba raised its expectations for full year revenue growth to 45 percent to 49 percent.

It has accelerated the roll- out of its ecommerce infrastructure in Southeast Asia, with a further $ 1 billion investment in Singapore-based e-commerce platform Lazada Group, and targeted new merchants in Russia and the US as part of a wider plan to boost revenue and attract new customers outside of China.