Half of transactions through mobile
Alibaba’s turnover increased to 17.4 billion yuan (2.5 billion euro) in the fourth quarter of its broken fiscal year, with mobile purchases representing 51 % of all transactions in the past three months. In the first quarter of 2014, mobile only had a 27 % share. Some 289 million people use Alibaba’s mobile platform nowadays, compared to 163 million a year ago.
Net profit halved to slightly below 2.9 billion yuan (410 million euro), although Alibaba attributes that to personnel stock option costs. If these one-time costs are eliminated from the equation, profit would have increased 14 %.
Younger people at the top
Alibaba founder Jack Ma has also divulged that Daniel Zhang, currently the company’s Chief Operating Officer, will become the new CEO. The current CEO, Jonathan Lu, will become Ma’s right hand as his ‘vice-chairman’.
The board change brings more youth into the company’s top management layer, Ma said in a letter to his employees: “This marks a future where the post-70 generation will command the troops at Alibaba Group!”
