Alibaba attracted 45 million new customers in the past quarter. It is the first time that the Chinese e-commerce giant has exceeded 25 billion euros in quarterly turnover, but due to large investments, profitability fell.
Sun Art
Alibaba’s turnover grew 34 per cent between April and June to 205.7 billion Chinese yuan (26.8 billion euros). Hypermarket chain Sun Art, which was acquired from Auchan last year, contributed significantly to this growth: without this acquisition, sales would have increased by ‘only’ 22 per cent.
In addition to the strong growth of the retail branch, the further development of the logistics division “Cainiao” is striking, with a 50 per cent increase in sales. However, the strong growth of the group’s cloud services was tempered by the loss of an important but unnamed customer.
1.18 billion customers
According to their own figures, Alibaba welcomed 45 million new customers in the reported period, bringing the total number of active customers to 1.18 billion. Of these, 912 million are from China itself. To grow further, the company focuses specifically on less developed regions within the country.
The operating profit did fall by 11 per cent to 30.8 billion yuan (4 billion euros). Alibaba attributes the lower profit to strategic investments in Taobao Deals, Lazada and second-hand platform Idle Fish.
