Alibaba revenue surges 54% in December quarter

SHANGHAI - China's e-commerce giant, Alibaba, said its quarterly revenue jumped 54% on-year in the third fiscal quarter ending December. The group's revenue was about RMB53.2 billion (US$7.67 billion) in the quarter, beating market expectations.

Daniel Zhang, CEO of Alibaba, said the robust quarter demonstrated the strength of Chinese consumers and Alibaba's ability to create value. Alibaba is the largest player in China's e-commerce market.

Its core e-commerce revenue increased 45% on-year to reach RMB46.5 billion in what was its third fiscal quarter. Revenue from cloud computing, digital media and entertainment, and innovation initiatives also increased. Its cloud computing business grew by 115% on-year to reach RMB 1.7 billion yuan.

"With three quarters of the year coming in ahead of expectations, we are adjusting up our estimate for the growth of 2017 fiscal year revenue from 48-53%," said Maggie Wu, chief financial officer of Alibaba Group. www.webershandwick.cn (ATI).