Alibaba posts $16.7bn in revenue, consumer base hits 674mn

Beijing: Expanding its user base to 674 million annual active consumers, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba on Thursday announced it posted $16.7 billion in revenue -- an increase of 42 per cent year-over-year -- with $2.7 billion in net income for the quarter that ended June 30.

While annual active consumers on its China retail marketplaces reached 674 million -- an increase of 20 million from the 12-month period ended March 31 -- mobile monthly active users on its our China retail marketplaces reached 755 million � an increase of 34 million over March 2019.

"We will continue to expand our customer base, increase operating efficiency and deliver robust growth. With strong cash flow from our core commerce business, we will continue to invest in technology and bring digital transformation to millions of businesses globally," Daniel Zhang, Chief Executive Officer of Alibaba Group, said in a statement.

Alibaba's Taobao platform saw a fast-growing consumer community, adding users and strengthening engagement in less developed areas.

During the quarter, over 70 per cent of the increase in annual active consumers was from less developed areas.

Alibaba's Tmall, a leading consumer engagement and distribution platform for brands, continues to gain wallet share and grow faster than the sector average.

Its Cloud computing revenue grew 66 per cent year-over-year to $1.1 billion during the quarter, primarily driven by an increase in average revenue per customer.

Alibaba Cloud launched over 300 new products and features, including those related to core cloud offerings, security, data intelligence and AI applications.

"We are focusing on expanding Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offerings by working with SaaS partners to build an ecosystem to better serve our enterprise customers," said the company.

According to Maggie Wu, Chief Financial Officer of Alibaba Group, the company is pleased to see sustained user engagement and consumer spending across its platforms.

"We continue to invest for long-term growth while, at the same time, gaining cost efficiencies in our investment areas," said Alibaba.