Alibaba sees 61% revenue increase as ‘new retail’ and international investments pay off

“Our China retail marketplace business continues to gain share, with New Retail initiatives driving further revenue growth and enabling our retail partners to seamlessly serve customers. We are executing our plan of providing more value and choice to users along the consumption continuum, with digital entertainment and local service offerings that tap into big addressable markets beyond core commerce,” said Daniel Zhang, chief executive officer of Alibaba Group. “We will continue to invest in strategic business opportunities and innovation to sustain our competitive advantage and for long- term growth.”

Overall, revenues increased 61% to RMB 80,920m (US$12,229) year-on-year. Within that, revenue from core commerce increased 61% to US$10,456 million, revenue from cloud computing by 93% to US$710 million, revenue from media and entertainment by 46% to US$903 million and revenue from innovation initiatives and others increased 64% to US$160 million.

Alibaba pointed to a number of significant strategic launches and points of view that has been established in the past year, including the expansion of its Hema stores, part of the ‘new retail’ initiative. It also pointed to a recent deal with Starbucks, which will see Alibaba power the tech behind food delivery and virtual stores for the global cafe brand.