Alibaba’s net profit for the first quarter has tripled to US$669 million from US$220 million a year earlier.

The rise in income has been driven by China’s booming e-commerce and growing online payment options, says analyst Billy Leung of RHB Research Institute.

“I am still more bullish on the Chines e-commerce market. It’s still in the early stage and will become more mature, and Alibaba will continue to benefit.”

US Internet giant Yahoo, which owns a stake in Alibaba, revealed that Alibaba’s total sales in the three months to March rose 71 per cent to US$1.4 billion.

Alibaba has been making a string of investments recently as it prepares to go public, which could value the company at US$62.5 billion, according to the median of eight estimates by investment banks and research firms.

Based in Hangzhou, Alibaba operates online shopping platforms Taobao and Tmall, along with other businesses such as online payment and cloud computing. It has a workforce of more than 24,000.

China’s online retail is estimated by McKinsey & Co to triple to US$395 billion by 2015.