China’s eCommerce goliath Alibaba Group has posted a 49 per cent increase in gross merchandise volume in the latest quarter – to US$90.52 billion.
And the number of people shopping on its websites increased 52 per cent year on year in the quarter to September 30.
“We delivered a strong quarter with significant growth across our key operating metrics,” said Jonathan Lu, CEO. “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.”
Perhaps the biggest change was in the mobile eCommerce sector, where Alibaba now boasts 217 million active users on its mobile apps who spent US$95 billion in the 12 months to September.
Mobile Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) in the quarter was US$32.430 billion, or 35.8 per cent of total GMV. That compares with 32.8 per cent in the quarter to June 30 and 14.7 per cent in the same quarter of 2013.
“We are encouraged by continued improvement of mobile monetisation which demonstrates the strong commercial intent of our users,” said Lu.
Alibaba described its financial performance as “robust” for the quarter, with revenue growing 54 per cent year on year.
Added Maggie Wei Wu, CFO: “We continue to execute our focused growth strategy, and the fundamental strength of our business gives us the confidence to invest in new initiatives to add new users, improving engagement and customer experience, expand our products and services and drive long-term shareholder value.”
Gross Merchandise Volume on Taobao Marketplace: $61.882 billion, up 38.2 per cent year on year and on Tmall $28.647 billion, up 77.8 per cent.
Alibaba had 307 million annual active buyers in the year to September 30, compared to 279 million in the year to June 30 and 202 million in the year to September 30, 2013.
Revenue increased by 53.7 per cent to US$2.742 billion in the quarter.
Net income in the quarter was US$494 million, down 38.6 per cent year on year. Alibaba said the decrease was primarily due to the share-based compensation charges and increased amortization expense and an increase in the company’s effective tax rate.
The full details of Alibaba’s quarterly results can be read online here.
