By CHENG Lu
Alibaba reported its Q4 earnings Thursday night, with revenue up 2 percent year on year to 248 billion yuan (US$36 billion).
Overall, the growth of overseas e-commerce business and local life services made up for the loss in domestic e-commerce – including Taobao and Tmall – which recorded a revenue of 170 billion yuan, down 1 percent year on year. GMV declined as Covid disrupted the supply.
“Looking ahead, we expect continued recovery in consumer sentiment and economic activity,” Daniel Zhang, CEO of Alibaba, said in a press release.
While domestic business dimmed, Alibaba has sought growth in overseas markets. Thanks to the World Cup, Black Friday and Singles Day, international revenue was up 18 percent year on year to 19.5 billion yuan.
Revenue from local life services business rose 6 percent year on year to 13 billion yuan, with food delivery Ele.me seeing huge growth due to demands for medicine.
Alibaba reported cloud revenue of 20 billion yuan, only up 3 percent year on year and a far cry from the more than 30 percent growth rates seen in the past.
Meanwhile, the revenue from entertainment from Ocboter to December was 7.57 billion yuan, down 6 percent, due to bleak cinema business.
