Alibaba says cloud sales increased 99 percent in 'outstanding' quarter
Alibaba's financial results for the September quarter breezed past analyst expectations, with sales surging 61 percent thanks to continued growth in its cloud computing and core commerce businesses.
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The Chinese internet giant said cloud computing revenue rose 99 percent to $447 million for the quarter. The increase was driven by an uptick in paying customers and the addition of higher valued-added services including content delivery network, database services, as well as data and security services.
Alibaba has invested heavily in its cloud platform, and the company said it plans to spend an additional $15 billion over the next three years on its research and development efforts and to further expand its product portfolio for cloud customers.
Core commerce, which is by far the largest piece of Alibaba's business, climbed 63 percent to $6.98 billion, bolstered by growth in active users. Alibaba said mobile monthly active users increased to 549 million, while annual active consumers grew by 20 million sequentially to 488 million.
Overall, Alibaba reported revenue of $8.3 billion with non-GAAP earnings of $1.29 per share. Analysts were expecting revenue of $7.9 billion with earnings of $1.03 per share.
Alibaba has also raised its outlook for full-year revenue growth to a range of 49 percent to 53 percent, up from between 45 percent to 49 percent previously, due to the recent consolidation of its logistics network Cainiao.
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"We had an outstanding quarter. Our consumer insights and technology innovation were the key drivers behind our customer value proposition across the Alibaba economy," said Daniel Zhang, CEO of Alibaba Group.
"We are seeing the early results from our efforts to integrate online and offline with our New Retail strategy, and consumers have benefited from access to high quality products, improved customer experience and the tremendous convenience of shopping anytime, anywhere," he added.