Alibaba Q1 profit nearly doubles on robust revenue

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Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd said Thursday its net profit almost doubled in the latest quarter on the back of solid revenue growth in its core shopping business and in cloud computing.

Alibaba, which has made billionaire founder Jack Ma one of China's richest men and a global e-commerce icon, has seen its New York-listed shares soar 80 percent since last December on perennially robust earnings.

In New York trade, Alibaba shares leapt another 4.7 percent to 167.00 US dollars in Thursday late morning trade.

With those shares at all-time highs, the company's market worth has been fast approaching that of industry leader Amazon.

Alibaba said net income in the quarter ending June 30 was 14.7 billion yuan (2.2 billion US dollars), a year-on-year increase of 94 percent.

Revenue from its core commerce offerings grew 58 percent in the quarter to 43 billion yuan, while cloud computing revenue jumped 96 percent to 2.4 billion yuan, according to the earnings statement.

Overall revenues in the quarter rose 56 percent to 50.2 billion yuan and beat the 45-49 percent increase for the quarter that the company itself forecast back in June.

Alibaba said it also was laying the foundation for long-term growth in its international operations, largely through the Southeast Asian e-commerce platform Lazada. Alibaba raised its stake in Lazada to 83 percent in the quarter.

International revenues reached 2.6 billion yuan in the latest quarter, up 136 percent year-on-year.

Source(s): AFP