China's Alibaba quarterly revenue surges 54% to $11 billion

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba said Tuesday its revenues leapt 54 per cent year-on-year for the quarter ended in December, spurred by rapid growth in Chinese online shopping.

Revenue for the company, seen as a benchmark for China's increasingly crucial consumer sector, reached 53.25 billion yuan (S$11 billion) in the quarter, it said in a statement.

Its net income attributable to ordinary shareholders was 17.9 billion yuan in the quarter, up 43 per cent over the same period the previous year.

The result "demonstrates the strength of the Chinese consumer and Alibaba's ability to create value across our vast ecosystem", said Daniel Zhang, chief executive officer of Alibaba Group.

Alibaba is China's dominant player in online commerce, with its Taobao platform estimated to hold more than 90 per cent of the consumer-to-consumer market. Its Tmall platform is believed to handle over half of business-to-consumer transactions.

The number of mobile users grew 25 per cent year-on-year to 493 million, it said.

The company, often compared to eBay or Amazon of the United States, has expanded outside its core e-commerce business into sectors ranging from sports to entertainment.