Alibaba India 2014-15 revenue falls 15%, net profit slips a tad

The Indian unit of Chinese e-commerce titan Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has reported a 15 per cent drop in total income for the year through March 2015 but posted a net profit for a fourth year in a row.

Total income of Alibaba.com India E-Commerce Pvt Ltd fell to Rs 17.93 crore from Rs 21.11 crore in 2013-14, according to financial details filed with the Registrar of Companies.

Net profit fell a tad to Rs 1.32 crore from Rs 1.36 crore.

Alibaba.com India is a B2B company that connects buyers and sellers of wholesale goods on its platform.

The India unit is a fraction of the parent company's size. Alibaba Group's revenue for the July-September quarter jumped 32 per cent from a year earlier, driven mainly by its mobile platform, to 22,171 million yuan, or $3.49 billion, the NYSE-listed company said in October. Mobile revenue soared 183 per cent from a year earlier to $1.65 billion.

Alibaba's bigger rival, US e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc, reported a 23 per cent increase in net sales to $25.4 billion for the quarter ended September 30.

The Chinese company is making deeper inroads in the Indian market. It recently launched an online platform, SMILE, exclusively for Indian small and medium enterprises. SMILE, which stands for Small and Medium Industries Leveraging Export, will provide Indian SMEs access to global business trading counterparts as well as one-stop trading solutions.

Alibaba also has made a large investment in One97 Communications Ltd, which runs mobile wallet and e-commerce venture Paytm. The Indian company in September raised an undisclosed amount in a fresh round of funding from Alibaba Group and Ant Financial, a privately held firm controlled by Alibaba founder Jack Ma.