Alibaba profit nearly doubles on robust revenues

SHANGHAI: Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba said 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 New York-listed shares soar 80 per cent since last December on perennially robust earnings.

In New York trade, Alibaba shares leapt another 4.7 per cent to US$167.00 in late morning trade.

With those shares at all-time highs, the company’s market worth has been fast approaching that of industry leader Amazon.

Alibaba said net income in the quarter which ended June 30 was 14.7 billion yuan (US$2.2 billion), a year-on-year increase of 94 per cent.

Alibaba thoroughly dominates e-commerce in China mainly through its Taobao platform, and its continued strong earnings performances have underlined the strength of the sector even as the country’s broader economic growth has slowed.

“We had a great quarter,” executive vice chairman Joseph Tsai told a conference call. Tsai said the results were strong because “we sowed the seeds years ago by investing in technology, by investing in innovation, by investing in people and by being bold with vision that nobody thought was possible.” — AFP