Alibaba Group recorded a revenue increase of 8% year-over-year(y/y) in the third quarter of 2024 despite poor performance in China, supported by cloud and e-commerce growth, the fastest in 2 years.
The revenue recorded during the quarter was $ 38.3 billion, an 8% increase y/y, surpassing expectations as sales jumped by 13% y/y.
Income from operations had an increase of 83% y/y to $ 5.6 billion, primarily due to the decrease in impairment of intangible assets as well as the increase in adjusted EBITA.
“This quarter’s results demonstrated substantial progress in our ‘user first, AI-driven’ strategies and the reaccelerated growth of our core businesses,” Chief Executive Officer of Alibaba Group, Eddie Wu said, “Our Cloud revenue growth reignited to double digits at 13%, with AI-related product revenue achieving triple-digit growth for the sixth consecutive quarter.”
He said revenue growth at Cloud Intelligence Group driven by AI will continue to accelerate in the future.
Direct sales and other revenue under China commerce retail business decreased by 9%y/y due planned reduction of certain direct sales businesses.
With the earnings report released on Thursday, Alibaba stocks jumped by 13% to $ 143 during the first hour of the US market opening.
During the quarter, customer management revenue at Taobao and Tmall Group grew 9% as a result of initiatives to enhance user experience and effective monetization.
Alibaba said for the quarter ended December 31, 2024, revenue from e-commerce business grew 32% y/y to $ 5.1 billion, primarily driven by strong performance of cross-border businesses.
Alibaba has repurchased a total of 119 million ordinary shares for a total of $ 1.3 billion as part of its share repurchase programme, which is effective through to March 2027, and total share repurchases were valued at $ 20.7 billion as of December 31, 2024.
