[BENGALURU/SHANGHAI] Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba reported quarterly revenue that missed Wall Street estimates on Thursday (May 15), as the company works on new strategies to keep consumers spending amid persistent economic weakness and global trade uncertainties.
US-listed shares of the company fell more than 4 per cent in premarket trading. They have risen about 58 per cent so far this year.
Chinese shoppers, grappling with a prolonged property crisis and a cloudy economic outlook, have increasingly become cost-conscious, prompting deep discounts and rock-bottom prices to stimulate spending.
That has sparked a price battle among China’s largest online e-commerce platforms including Alibaba, PDD Holdings’ Pinduoduo and JD.com, as they jostle for market share.
Alibaba’s rival JD.com on Tuesday beat first-quarter revenue estimates and said it was seeing strong user growth.
For the March quarter, revenue from Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall Group segment, its Chinese e-commerce arm, was up nearly 9 per cent from a year earlier, above market estimates. Alibaba’s earnings statement attributed the growth to strong momentum in new consumer growth and a continuing increase in orders.
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Chinese e-commerce giants have been aggressively expanding into instant retail, focusing on delivery speeds of 30 to 60 minutes, in their battle for market share.
Both JD.com and Alibaba’s platforms have offered users incentives including coupons to try their expanded instant retail and food delivery offerings.
Investors are now shifting focus to the “618” festival, one of the biggest annual shopping events in China, which culminates on Jun 18. Retailers have already started pre-sales.
Alibaba reported revenue of 236.45 billion yuan (S$42.6 billion) in its fiscal fourth quarter ended Mar 31, compared with analysts’ estimates of 237.24 billion yuan, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Alibaba has emerged as a leader in China’s competitive AI race and the tech giant has consistently released new models throughout the year. It launched Qwen three in April, an upgraded version of its flagship AI model that introduces new hybrid reasoning capabilities.
Alibaba’s Cloud Intelligence Unit’s revenue grew 18 per cent to 30.13 billion yuan. REUTERS
