Technology drives Alibaba’s impressive 61% rise in revenues

9 May, 2018

Alibaba Group Holding Limited recently announced its financial results for the quarter and fiscal year ending 31-Mar-2018. The Group reported a better-than-expected 61% rise in revenues for the quarter helped by an impressive Cloud Computing technology department which enjoyed a revenue increase of 103% year-over-year.

Alibaba Group CEO Daniel Zhang said: "Alibaba Group had an excellent quarter and fiscal year, driven by robust growth in our core commerce business and investments we have made over the past several years in longer-term growth initiatives. With the continuing roll out of our New Retail strategy, our e-commerce platform is developing into the leading retail infrastructure of China. During the past year we also doubled down on technology development, cloud computing, logistics, digital entertainment and local services so that we are in a position to capture consumption growth in China and other emerging markets."

Key financial result highlights:

  • Revenue was RMB61,932 million (USD9,873 million), an increase of 61% year-over-year.
    • Revenue from core commerce increased 62% year-over-year to RMB51,287 million (USD8,176 million).
    • Revenue from cloud computing increased 103% year-over-year to RMB4,385 million (USD699 million).
    • Revenue from digital media and entertainment increased 34% year-over-year to RMB5,272 million (USD840 million).
    • Revenue from innovation initiatives and others increased 8% year-over-year to RMB988 million (USD158 million).

Cloud Computing:

Cloud computing played an important role in assisting with Alibaba's increased revenue. Products such as Link Edge, a proprietary edge computing software to enable the development of IoT applications, is finding new opportunities for use in public facilities such as airports all over the world. Airlines are also adopting key technologies made available by Alibaba including Cathay Pacific, who adopted Alibaba's security and data protection consultancy services to protect its operations in China. The China National Petroleum Corporation, one of the largest petroleum companies in China, also announced it is building its procurement platform on Alibaba Cloud, leveraging its private cloud, big data, and security products and services.

Looking ahead to 2019:

Alibaba Group CFO Maggie Wu believes the Group can expect overall revenue growth above 60% in 2019, reflecting "our confidence in our core business as well as positive momentum in new businesses. We expect our new growth initiatives will drive long-term, sustainable value for our customers and partners and increase our total addressable market."