By CHENG Lu
Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group released its financial results for the first quarter of the 2024 fiscal year on Thursday, with revenue reaching 234 billion yuan (US$32 billion), exceeding market expectations by 10 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14 percent; net profit was 34 billion yuan, and net GAAP profit was 45 billion yuan, up 48 percent.
This is the first financial report since Alibaba the reorganization into six groups in March. After just one quarter, Alibaba believes that the initial effects are evident, with strong growth, and overall performance surpassing expectations.
Taobao Tmall's quarterly revenue grew by 12 percent year-on-year, Cainiao's by 34 percent. Alibaba Cloud lags substantially behind the rest of the group, up only 4 percent growth on last year.
Taobao Tmall
Core revenue for this quarter increased by 10 percent year-on-year to reach 79.7 billion yuan. E-commerce direct sales and other revenue reached 30.2 billion yuan, driven by consumer electronics. The Taobao app's daily active users increased by only 6.5 percent year-on-year, to 887 million. New merchants are still signing up in numbers with 75 percent more sellers now that this time last year.
An obvious trend is that Taobao is focusing on merchant recruitment and operations, aiming to become a platform for the entire lifecycle of merchants and users.
Overseas growth
Alibaba's International Digital Commerce Group saw a 41 percent year-on-year revenue with international retail revenue increasing by 60 percent year-on-year to reach 17.1 billion yuan. Platforms like Ali Express, Lazada, and Trendyol all recorded growth in orders. International wholesale business revenue was 5 billion yuan, nearly unchanged from last year.
In terms of overall losses, Alibaba's overseas EBITA loss after adjustment was 420 million yuan, a substantial decrease from the 1.38 billion yuan lost last year. Both Lazada and Trendyol reduced their losses.
Since the pandemic, travel and travel-related demand have strongly rebounded. During the May 1st holiday, Gaode's peak daily active users exceeded 200 million. The offline recovery also led to an increase in demand for activities like movies and exhibitions. Alibaba Pictures Group's quarterly revenue increased by 36 percent year-on-year.
Moving fast
Alibaba Cloud's revenue increased by 4 percent year-on-year. Cainiao network's revenue increased by 34 percent to reach 23.2 billion yuan, while turning losses into profit of 877 million yuan this quarter.
In terms of costs, product development expenses were 10.5 billion yuan; sales and marketing expenses were 27 billion yuan; and general administrative expenses were 7.3 billion yuan.
As of June 30, Alibaba had 229,000 employees, compared to 235,000 at the end of March.
