Alibaba profit nearly doubles on robust revenues
SHANGHAI: Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba said on Thursday its net profit almost doubled in the latest quarter on the back of solid revenue growth in its core shopping business and in cloud computing.
Alibaba, which has made billionaire founder Jack Ma one of China's richest men and a global e-commerce icon, has seen its shares soar 80 per cent since last December on robust earnings, with the company fast approaching the market worth of industry leader Amazon.
Alibaba said net income in the quarter which ended June 30 was 14.7 billion yuan ($2.2 billion), a year-on-year increase of 94 per cent.
The company's earnings have highlighted the strength of the e-commerce sector in China even as the country's broader economic growth has slowed.
Overall revenues in the quarter rose 56 per cent to 50.2 billion yuan, beating the $7.2 billion average of analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Revenue from its core commerce offerings grew 58 per cent in the quarter to 43.0 billion yuan, while cloud computing revenue jumped 96 per cent to 2.4 billion yuan, it said in an earnings statement.
"Our technology is driving significant growth across our business and strengthening our position beyond core commerce," the statement quoted Alibaba Group chief executive officer Daniel Zhang as saying. NEW DELHI: Demand for artificial intelligence and machine learning specialists in the country are expected to see a 60 per cent rise by 2018 due to increasing adoption of automation, says Kellyocg India.
According to Francis Padamadan, Country Director, Kellyocg India, a talent management solutions provider, although AI and machine adoption is on the rise in India, there is negligible talent with experience in technologies like deep learning and neutral networks.
Accordingly, the average salary of AI professionals in India across industries are quite attractive. Giving details Padamadan said, a 2-4 years experience commands a salary of Rs 15-20 lacs per annum, while for 4-8 years it is Rs 20-50 lacs per annum and for 8-15 years it is Rs 50 lacs to Rs 1 crore per annum.
Moreover, HR managers and talent acquisition professionals feel that because of AI their roles will evolve into broader and more strategic productivity management roles.
As there is significant talent crunch in the AI space, "recruiters who can speed up their hiring process using AI automation tools will win the war for talent in the future," Padamadan said.
The top five locations to find AI and Machine learning talent is Bengaluru, NCR, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad. NEW DELHI: Two-thirds of Indian power utilities have citied digitisation of manual processes as one of the biggest drivers of growth and want to invest in technology for making their organisation more agile, a survey said on Thursday.
According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Energy Insights survey commissioned by Schneider Electric, 64 per cent of utility companies cited the digitising of manual processes as one of the biggest drivers for people, process and technology transformation within their organisations.
The survey, done by USbased IDC, found that organisational flexibility and agility is also an issue, with 68 per cent of respondents stating their desire to create a more agile organisation as the top driver behind their information technology investments.
Anil Chaudhry, Country President and Managing Director, Schneider Electric India, said, "Digitisation offers tremendous opportunities for improving competency of power distribution in India."
"Traditionally, we have addressed the energy equation from the supply side - adjusting the amount of electricity generated to ensure that supply matches demand. But depending solely on supply-side solutions will not allow us to meet our obligations to reduce our carbon emissions and reduce energy consumption," he added.
The study, released on Thursday, stated that Indian power sector faces several challenges, particularly rapid energy demand growth, infrastructure modernisation, and transmission and distribution inefficiencies.
It found that the operational efficiency and cost are the top priorities the Indian power companies are facing.
The research outlined the heavy focus that Indian utilities have placed on operational efficiency to improve their financial position, with improving efficiencies and reducing costs figuring as their top two priorities in the next 12-18 months.
It found that the manual distribution processes, lack of decision making transparency, insufficient infrastructure, and lack of real-time information are some of the other challenges that are in turn resulting in delayed revenue realisation, poor operating efficiency, and high operating costs.
Among Indian utilities, cloud platforms for data management, IOT and utilisation of data within 3D visualisations are particular priorities for organisations looking at new areas of technology investment.