Alibaba Q2 revenue soars 32% led by mobile

Chinese e-commerce titan Alibaba Group Holding Ltd said on Tuesday second-quarter revenue jumped 32 per cent, driven mainly by its mobile platform.

Revenue for the July-September period rose to 22,171 million yuan, or $3.49 billion, from 16,829 million yuan a year earlier, the NYSE-listed company said in a statement. Mobile revenue soared 183 per cent from a year earlier to $1.65 billion.

Gross merchandise value, or the value of goods sold through its platforms, grew to 713 billion yuan, or $112 billion, up 28 per cent from a year earlier. The mobile GMV accounted for 62 per cent of the total GMV transacted on China retail marketplaces.

"This was a great quarter for Alibaba Group, with strong growth across the board and particular outperformance in mobile," said Daniel Zhang, CEO of Alibaba Group. The company remains focused on its strategic priorities, including expanding overseas and building a cloud computing business, he added. Net income attributable to shareholders touched $3.58 billion, or $1.40 per share.

Alibaba's cloud computing and internet infrastructure business accelerated during the quarter, with revenue increasing 128 per cent year-on-year to $102 million. Revenue from its international commerce retail business rose by 15 per cent.

Riding on better-than-expected earnings, shares of Alibaba climbed by about six per cent in the first hour of trading.

In India, Alibaba backs two companies (Snapdeal and Paytm) that are directly slugging it out for supremacy in the country's consumer internet space. Alibaba last month invested an undisclosed amount in a fresh round of funding in One97 Communications Ltd, which runs mobile wallet and e-commerce venture Paytm. Interestingly, Alibaba's top shareholder is Japanese internet conglomerate SoftBank, which is also the lead investor in Snapdeal. SoftBank alone pumped nearly $657 million in the online marketplace last year, becoming the largest investor in Snapdeal.

Alibaba's staunch competitor Amazon.com, Inc had recently reported 23 per cent increase in net sales to $25.4 billion for the third quarter ended September 30, 2015. Active customers on Amazon's India marketplace grew over 230 per cent year-over-year.