Alibaba announces “strong” fourth quarter results
China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba has announced that it had a “strong” fourth quarter of fiscal 2015, with 45% year-on-year revenue growth. “Alibaba had a strong quarter with significant growth across our key operating metrics,” said Jonathan Lu, Chief Executive Officer of Alibaba Group, in a statement issued ahead of today’s market opening. “We grew revenue, gross merchandise volume (GMV) and annual active buyers, and we expanded our unrivaled leadership position in mobile.”
Revenues for the quarter were USD 2.8 billion, up 45% year-on-year.
GMV across Alibaba’s Chinese retail marketplaces grew 40% year-on-year, and its annual active buyers increased to 350 million, up 37% year-on-year.
Lu added that Alibaba had extended its “strong leadership position in mobile to 289 million monthly active users on [its] mobile e-commerce apps in the month of March and US$49 billion in mobile GMV during the March quarter”.
Lu summarised: “Our business continues to perform well, and our results highlight both the strength of our ecosystem and the strong foundation we have for sustainable future growth in China, and beyond.”
Maggie Wu, Chief Financial Officer of Alibaba Group, added: “We continue to execute our growth strategy and focus on long-term value creation. The fundamental strength of our business gives us the confidence to invest in new initiatives, add new users, improve customer experience and expand our products and services.”
Some analyst had predicted that Alibaba’s fourth quarter figures would be relatively disappointing, and the company’s share price took a tumble on Tuesday. Today, however, Alibaba’s shares have seen a surge in pre-market trading, on the back the stronger-than-expected results.
Alibaba used its statement about the financial and yearly results to announce that Daniel Zhang, currently Chief Operating Officer of Alibaba, will become CEO, effective 10 May. Zhang is one of the founding members of the Alibaba Partnership and has been COO since September 2013. Current CEO Lu will remain on the board of directors of Alibaba Group as Vice Chairman.
Alibaba also announced the appointment of Börje Ekholm to the Alibaba Group Board of Directors, effective 1 June. Ekholm, who will serve as an independent director and a member of the Audit Committee, is the President and CEO of Investor AB of Sweden.
JD.com – one of Alibaba’s main competitors in the Chinese e-commerce market place – will be announcing its results tomorrow (Friday, 8 May).
