- Alibaba grew Q3 revenue 5% to $36.7B, focusing investment on reviving core e-commerce and cloud growth.
- International unit shines while losses narrow for Southeast Asia’s Lazada.
- Given outlook confidence, board approves $25B boost to buyback authorization.
Chinese e-commerce leader Alibaba Group grew revenue 5% year-over-year in its fiscal 2024 third quarter to $36.67 billion, marginally missing analyst forecasts.
The company, with a March 31st financial year-end, also posted a 2% jump in adjusted EBITDA to $7.4 billion for the period ending December 31st. However, income from operations sank 36% versus last year to $3.17 billion.
Focus on core growth areas
Alibaba attributed the decline mainly to non-cash impairment charges on intangible assets tied to its Sun Art retail arm and Youku video platform goodwill. Still, net operating cash flow dropped 26% annually.
CEO Eddie Wu stated reigniting core business growth in e-commerce and cloud computing is the top priority. Alibaba will increase investments to improve user experiences on Taobao and Tmall to reaccelerate expansion over the coming year, he said.
Revenue growth across segments
Taobao and Tmall remained Alibaba’s primary revenue drivers at $18.2 billion. The international commerce unit followed, surging 44% to $4 billion on broad-based retail growth, especially for the cross-border marketplace AliExpress.
AliExpress’ Choice business accounted for half of total orders this January, while losses per order kept narrowing for Lazada, Alibaba’s Southeast Asian platform. Cloud revenue edged up 3% to $3.9 billion, and the digital media division climbed 18% on entertainment gains to $710 million.
Given confidence in the business outlook and cash flow, Alibaba’s board approved boosting the share buyback authorization by $25 billion through March 2027. The company repurchased $9.5 billion in stock last calendar year.
