Despite the struggling economy in China, business is brisk on Alibaba.com, the international B2B e-marketplace of China-based e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. And it’s even more robust on Alibaba’s domestic B2B portal, 1688.com.
Revenue on Alibaba.com increased 18% to 1.430 billion yuan (US$217.39 million for the company’s third fiscal ended Dec. 31, from 1.209 billion yuan (US$183.80 million). Alibaba attributed the increase in its international B2B e-commerce revenue to import/export services provided by OneTouch, a unit of Alibaba. OneTouch, known in China as Yidatong, reported $12 billion in service revenue for the full calendar year 2015, according to Xiao Feng, vice general manager of OneTouch.
On 1688.com, Alibaba’s B2B portal for China-based buyers and suppliers, the company reported a 35% increase in Q3 revenue to 1.162 billion yuan (US$176.65 million), up from 860 million yuan (US$130.71 million).
Alibaba doesn’t report the value of its B2B gross merchandise value, the value of all transactions on Alibaba.com and 1688.com.
Alibaba also reported for the fiscal quarter ended Dec. 31:
- 2.592 billion yuan (US$400 million) in combined domestic and international wholesale e-commerce sales, up from 2.069 billion yuan (US$314.45 million);
- 819 million yuan (US$126 million) in revenue from cloud computing and Internet infrastructure, up 126% from 362 million yuan (US$55.02 million). Alibaba attributed the increase partly to rising interest in its web content delivery and database services;
- Net income of 12.46 billion yuan (US$1.89 billion), up 108% from 5.983 billion yuan (US$909.31 million) a year earlier. The surge in income coincided with a sharp drop in interest expense, to 475 million yuan (US$72.19 million) from 1.344 billion yuan (US$204.26 million).
For the nine months ended Dec. 31, Alibaba also reported:
- 1.95 billion yuan (US$301 million) in revenue from cloud computing and Internet infrastructure, up 121% from 883 million yuan (US$134.20 million);
- Net income of 65.98 billion yuan (US$10.19 billion), up 208% from 21.45 billion yuan (US$3.26 billion) a year earlier.
Alibaba Group also reported a 23% increase in the gross merchandise value of transactions on its retail e-commerce sites.
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