Chinese internet giant Alibaba Group recorded US$33.8 billion in revenue for the quarter ended December 31, 2020, an increase of 37% from 161 billion yuan (US$24.9 billion) a year before.
Photo credit: caoyuan73 / 123RF
The uptick was mainly driven by its China commerce retail business, which raked in US$23 billion during the period, up by 39% compared to 110 billion yuan (US$17 billion) in the same quarter of 2019. Alibaba said annual active consumers on its Chinese retail marketplace reached 779 million for the 12 months last year, while its mobile monthly active users hit 902 million in December 2020.
Lazada, the group’s ecommerce arm in the Southeast Asia market, also recorded a quarter of triple-digit year-over-year growth order growth. Lazada, along with Alibaba’s ecommerce unit in Turkey, primarily contributed to the growth of the Chinese giant’s international commerce retail business, which pulled in US$1.5 billion during the period, up by 37% YoY.
Revenue from its cloud computing business, Alibaba Cloud, reached US$2.4 billion in the report period, a 50% YoY growth. The Internet titan claims that for the first time, Alibaba Cloud achieved positive adjusted EBITA in the quarter due to the realization of economies of scale.
Meanwhile, Alibaba’s digital media and entertainment segment and innovation initiatives generated US$1.2 billion and US$207 million in revenue during the period, respectively.
The company yielded US$11.9 billion in net income, growing by 56% compared to 50 billion yuan (US$7.7 billion) in the same quarter of 2019. The increase was mainly attributed to rising market prices of its equity investments in publicly traded companies during the period, said the company.
The announcement comes shortly after Chinese regulators kicked off an investigation into alleged monopolistic practices by Alibaba, as well as suspended the dual listing of its fintech arm Ant Group due to regulatory issues.
Regarding the challenge, Alibaba said it has established “a special task force” with leaders from its relevant business units to conduct internal reviews. And in response to the shelved IPO, the company said Ant Group is in the process of developing its rectification plan, which will need to go through the relevant regulatory procedures.
“Therefore, Ant Group’s business prospects and IPO plans are subject to substantial uncertainties. Currently, we are unable to make a complete and fair assessment of the impact that these changes and uncertainties will have on Alibaba Group,” said Alibaba in the statement.
Currency converted from Chinese yuan to US dollar: US$1 = 6.46 yuan.
Editing by Miguel Cordon and Jaclyn Teng
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