Alibaba-W released its third-quarter results, with a net profit of 43.547 billion yuan, an increase of 63% year-on-year. Gaode's daily active users peaked at over 300 million, setting a new historical high

According to the Zhitong Finance APP, Alibaba-W (09988) released its quarterly results for the period ending September 30, 2024. The group achieved revenue of RMB 236.503 million during the period, an increase of 5% year-on-year; the net profit attributable to ordinary shareholders was RMB 43.874 billion, an increase of 58% year-on-year; the net profit was RMB 43.547 billion, an increase of 63% year-on-year; the diluted earnings per American Depositary Share were RMB 18.17 (USD 2.59) and diluted earnings per share were RMB 2.27.

The announcement stated that the increase in net profit was mainly due to changes in the fair value of equity investments held by the group, a decrease in investment impairment, and an increase in operating profit.

Taotian Group

In this quarter, online GMV growth was driven by a double-digit year-on-year increase in order volume, with order growth mainly driven by an increase in purchase frequency, partially offset by a decline in average order value. In October and November of this year, the group successfully held the Double 11 shopping festival, during which Taobao and Tmall's GMV achieved strong growth, and the number of buyers reached a record high.

The 88VIP members are the group’s highest purchasing power consumer group, and their number continued to grow at a double-digit year-on-year rate, reaching 46 million this quarter. The group’s high-end consumers are loyal customers who can enhance purchase frequency and drive GMV growth. Therefore, the group is committed to continuously increasing the number of 88VIP members by enhancing member benefits and service investments.

Cloud Intelligence Group

For the quarter ending September 30, 2024, the Cloud Intelligence Group reported revenue of RMB 29.610 billion (USD 4.219 billion), a year-on-year increase of 7%.

In this quarter, overall revenue (excluding revenue from Alibaba's consolidated businesses) grew by over 7% year-on-year, driven by double-digit growth in public cloud business, including an increase in the adoption of AI-related products. Revenue from AI-related products has achieved triple-digit year-on-year growth for five consecutive quarters. The group will continue to invest in customer growth and technology, especially in AI infrastructure, to seize the trend of increasing cloud adoption in the AI field and maintain its market leadership.

Alibaba Cloud has been clearly recognized as China's preferred service provider for public cloud and AI training and applications. According to the report "The Forrester Wave™: Public Cloud Platforms in China 2024," Alibaba Cloud ranks overall in the "Leader Quadrant," receiving the highest scores in 23 out of 32 evaluation criteria, and achieving high scores in both product offerings and strategy. In this quarter, Alibaba Cloud was also rated in the "Leader Quadrant" in the "Omdia Universe: Chinese Commercial Foundation Model 2024" report, receiving the highest scores in strategic execution and technical capabilities. These achievements affirm Alibaba Cloud's status as a top public cloud and AI platform in China.

In September of this year, the group held the 16th Annual Cloud Computing Developer Summit and Exhibition "Yunqi Conference 2024." At the conference, the Cloud Intelligence Group released new technologies, including:  ·  Tongyi Qianwen large model family upgrade: The group has made significant upgrades to the Tongyi Qianwen large model family, including the release of the Tongyi Qianwen open-source model 2.5 series, which has become one of the leading models in the global open-source ecosystem. Its flagship version, Tongyi Qianwen open-source model 2.5-72B, has performed strongly in multiple benchmark tests, surpassing industry competitors. Since its first open-source release in 2023 until September 30, 2024, there have been over 70,000 derivative models developed based on the Tongyi family on Hugging Face, indicating that Tongyi Qianwen has become one of the most widely adopted open-source models globally.

  ·  Cost-effectiveness and AI inclusivity: Alibaba Cloud is committed to providing customers with the most cost-effective AI capabilities. In this quarter, the group significantly improved the cost-effectiveness for Tongyi Qianwen model customers by reducing API call rates. This has made advanced AI technology more economically inclusive and accessible.

 ·  Comprehensive upgrade of AI infrastructure: To better seize opportunities in AI applications, the group has strengthened its AI infrastructure to enhance scalability and performance. Recently, the group launched GPU container services and upgraded AI servers and high-performance network products. These improvements have significantly enhanced model training and inference efficiency across various industries.

As of the quarter ending September 30, 2024, Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group (AIDC) reported a year-on-year revenue increase of 29% to 31.672 billion yuan (4.513 billion USD). The strong performance continues to be driven by growth in cross-border business, particularly the AliExpress Choice business. The AliExpress and Trendyol platforms continue to invest in specific markets in Europe and the Gulf region to enhance consumer awareness. Meanwhile, the group has improved operational and investment efficiency. As a result, the unit economics of the Choice business have improved quarter-on-quarter.

As of the quarter ending September 30, 2024, Cainiao Group (Cainiao) reported a year-on-year revenue increase of 8% to 24.647 billion yuan (3.512 billion USD), primarily driven by growth in revenue from cross-border logistics fulfillment solutions.

As of the quarter ending September 30, 2024, Local Life Group reported a year-on-year revenue increase of 14% to 17.725 billion yuan (2.526 billion USD), driven by order growth from Amap and Ele.me, as well as an increase in marketing service revenue. In this quarter, benefiting from improved operational efficiency and business scale, the losses of the Local Life Group significantly narrowed year-on-year. During the National Day holiday in October this year, Amap's daily active users peaked at over 300 million, setting a new historical high.

As of the quarter ending September 30, 2024, Big Entertainment Group reported revenue of 5.694 billion yuan (811 million USD), a year-on-year decrease of 1%. The losses of the Big Entertainment Group narrowed year-on-year, and thanks to increased advertising revenue and improved content investment efficiency, the operational losses of Youku gradually decreased this quarter.

Alibaba Group CEO Eddie Wu said: "In this quarter, Taotian business continued to invest in user experience, enriching product offerings to better serve consumers. We are establishing long-term collaborations with technology peers to expand payment and logistics services on the Taobao and Tmall platforms, which is expected to bring significant incremental effects to the overall platform." Cloud business has accelerated growth compared to previous quarters, with public cloud product revenue achieving double-digit growth and AI-related product revenue achieving triple-digit growth. We are more confident in the prospects of our core business than in the past and will continue to invest to support long-term growth. The operational efficiency of other businesses continues to improve, with most businesses either increasing profitability or reducing losses.

Alibaba Group Chief Financial Officer Xu Hong said, "This quarter's revenue growth was driven by the gradual increase in the monetization rate of Taotian Group, which includes service fees based on GMV and merchants adopting our marketing tools for full-site promotion. In line with our strategy, we continue to invest in our core business and improve operational efficiency. This quarter, we repurchased $4.1 billion in shares, with the number of outstanding shares further net decreasing by 2.1% compared to the end of June, providing better returns for shareholders."