China’s Strength and Its Shopping Lift Alibaba’s Results -
By PAUL MOZURMAY 18, 2017
HONG KONG — China’s vast ranks of consumers are finding ways to spend more money online — and that’s good news for Alibaba.
The Alibaba Group, the Chinese e-commerce giant that a few years ago led the biggest share listing in the history of the American stock market, on Thursday posted strong profit growth
and better-than-expected sales growth for the three months that ended in March.
The results show Alibaba has a long way to go before it can diversify its business
amid expectations that even China’s online sales boom has its limits.
Alibaba’s revenue for the year grew more than twice as fast as its gross merchandise volume, a
measure of sales volume, meaning much of the rise did not come from simply selling more stuff.
The surge came as Chinese government statistics showed an increase in online retail sales as well as stronger overall economic growth.
