Total revenue for the Hangzhou-based company reached 247.8 billion yuan (US$34.8 billion) for its financial second quarter ended September 30, beating the consensus estimate of 245.2 billion yuan by Bloomberg-polled analysts. That was more than the 2 per cent growth rate in the previous quarter.
Net income attributable to ordinary shareholders fell 52 per cent to 21 billion yuan from 43.9 billion yuan a year ago, primarily due to the decrease in income from operations. Still, that fared better than the 9.2 billion yuan estimate by analysts.
“We have entered into an investment phase to build long-term strategic value in AI technologies and infrastructure and a consumption platform integrating daily life services and e-commerce,” said Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu Yongming.
The latest quarterly results of Alibaba, owner of the South China Morning Post, showed how its heightened efforts in the cloud, AI and e-commerce markets have paid off.
The company deployed about 120 billion yuan in capital expenditure towards AI and cloud infrastructure over the past 12 months, according to Toby Xu, Alibaba’s chief financial officer.
