Alibaba says profit up 132% in 'outstanding' quarter amid soaring sales

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba said on Thursday that soaring sales fuelled a 132 per cent increase in net profit in what it called an "outstanding" quarter, as the firm raised its expectations for full-year revenue growth.

China's biggest e-commerce company said net profit for the three months ending September 30 reached 17.67 billion yuan, (USD 2.67 billion), up from 7.62 billion yuan in the same period of 2016.

"We had an outstanding quarter," Chief Financial Officer Maggie Wu said in a statement.

"This quarter we delivered excellent results, with overall revenue growth of 61 per cent demonstrating the robust momentum in our core commerce business and across the Alibaba economy."

Alibaba said revenue growth in the quarter was fuelled in large part by technological innovations including the app for its key Taobao online shopping, which it said has a growing capability to anticipate and suggest shopping options to its hundreds of millions of users.

Revenues in the quarter, the second in Alibaba's fiscal year, came it at 55.1 billion yuan, topping an analyst estimate of 52 billion yuan compiled by Bloomberg News.
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