Alibaba beats faltering Chinese economy to post 32pc rise in profit

27 Oct 2015

Alibaba’s profits have jumped 32pc to $3.5bn in its latest quarterly results, despite the notable slowdown in China’s economy.

Alibaba’s fine results come on the back of an upsurge in mobile business, with key partnerships with electronics companies and increased cloud-based services also playing a major role.

Revenue through mobile nearly tripled to $1.66bn, with mobile traffic surging 12pc in the previous quarter before continuing down that route this quarter.

The growth in the total value of goods sold over the Alibaba platform actually continued its trend of reducing per quarter, again highlighting the impressive profitability the company has wrung out of its operations.

Alibaba’s expansion has been as aggressive as it has been widespread, with a move into the TV content creator area announced during the summer.

“Our mission, the mission of all of Alibaba, is to redefine home entertainment. Our goal is to become like HBO in the US, to become like Netflix in the US,” said its head of digital entertainment, Patrick Liu, at the time.

Alibaba also announced plans to increase its stake in Alibaba Health earlier this year.

During this quarter, it invested $4.6bn in electronics company Suning and bid $3.5bn for Youku Tudou, known as China’s YouTube.

Main image via Shutterstock

Gordon Hunt was a journalist with Silicon Republic

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