Alibaba Group reported a 7.66 billion yuan ($1.17 billion) operational loss in the fiscal quarter ended March 31 due to a massive antitrust fine imposed by the Chinese market regulator last month.

The company's income from operations would have risen by 48 percent year-on-year if the fine was not counted, it said in an earnings report released on Thursday.

Its fourth-quarter revenue hit 187.39 billion yuan, an increase of 64 percent year-on-year, beating Refinitiv estimates at 180.41 billion yuan. Meanwhile, the revenue for the fiscal year reached 717.28 billion, an increase of 41 percent year-on-year.

In April, China's State Administration for Market Regulation slapped a record fine of 18.23 billion yuan on Alibaba Group for indulging in a monopolistic act of abusing its dominant market position.

Since its founding in 1999, Alibaba has morphed into one of the world's largest e-commerce companies. The market regulator imposed a fine of 4 percent on the tech giant's 2019 domestic sales after a four-month investigation.

User growth

"Alibaba achieved a historic milestone of one billion annual active consumers globally in the fiscal year ended March 2021," announced Daniel Zhang, chairman and chief executive officer of the group.

The vast majority of the company's user base is in China. It revealed that active consumers on its China retail marketplaces hit 811 million for the fiscal year.

The company expects to generate over 930 billion yuan in revenue in the fiscal year 2022, citing the market potential of China's consumption economy.