SAN FRANCISCO
Chinese e-commerce colossus Alibaba on Tuesday reported its first earnings announcement since the company had its attention-grabbing initial public offering in September.
Bringing joy to investors who jumped onto the IPO, the company reported a boost in profits that was larger than most analysts expected.
Even as the Chinese economy chilled, Alibaba posted a 16 percent rise in profits from the same period last year. CEO Jonathan Lu believes the growth is due to more Chinese shopping online.
"We delivered a strong quarter with significant growth across our key operating metrics," Lu said in a press release. "Our business continues to perform well, and our results reflect both the strength of our ecosystem and the strong foundation we have for sustainable growth.”
Alibaba’s business doesn’t really have a parallel in the West. The company runs several online retailers similar to Amazon and eBay, as well as a payment system comparable to PayPal and a Groupon-esque daily discount site. Alibaba also has branches in social media, owning large stakes in China’s answer to Twitter and YouTube.
The company set the record for the largest IPO in Wall Street history when it opened at $25 billion in late September. Valued at around $250 billion, not only is it now worth more than Facebook, the rate of user growth would make any Silicon Valley executive jealous.
“On our China retail marketplaces, gross merchandise volume for the quarter increased 49 percent and annual active buyers increased 52 percent year on year,” Lu continued. “We extended our unrivaled leadership in mobile with 217 million monthly active users on our mobile commerce apps in September.”
Revenue for the quarter rose to $2.74 billion.
“We’re one of the very few companies in China that has generated substantial revenues from mobile and clearly disclosed it,” Joseph Tsai, the company’s executive vice chairman, told analysts.
Wall Street reacted positively to the news with shares of the company briefly trading above $105 early Tuesday afternoon.
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