Alibaba’s quarterly revenues beat expectations, company names new CEO

Alibaba just announced its earnings for the quarter ending March 2015, and the results are solid, if not remarkable.

Revenues rose 45 percent year-on-year, from RMB 12.2 billion to (about US$1.9 billion) to RMB 17.4 billion (about US$2.8 billion). Analysts expected a jump of 40 percent year on year. Net income hit RMB 2.8 billion (about US$463 million), marking a 49 percent decrease year-on-year. The company attributes the drop to share-based compensations following its IPO. Non-GAAP net income grew 16 percent annually to RMB 7.7 billion (about US$1.2 billion).

Gross merchandise volume (GMV) rose 24 percent quarter-on-quarter to RMB 600 billion (about US$96 billion), up 40 percent from the year prior. Mobile GMV made up 51 percent of the company’s total GMV, up from 42 percent last quarter.

Alibaba also announced that it has replaced CEO Jonathan Lu with current COO Daniel Zhang, who the company describes as one of the key architects behind its famous Singles Day sales.

Some analysts have expressed concern whether Alibaba can continue to grow following its explosive IPO. The company has also seen roughly US$70 billion of its market value disappear in the past six months. A number of factors could account for the drop. Not only is the IPO honeymoon over, but China’s State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) issued a lengthy report that singled out Alibaba as one of the biggest culprits of counterfeit goods sales. While the company has always been a target for such criticism, the timing and scope of the report might have led investors to fear the Chinese government might adversely affect its future performance.