Alibaba sales surge amid China’s ‘rapid’ Covid-19 recovery

The Chinese ecommerce giant enjoyed a 37% uplift in revenues to 221bn yuan (£25bn) in the last three months of the year, compared with the same period in 2019. 

Sales in the group’s core commerce division jumped 38% to 195.5bn yuan (£22.2bn), with retail sales in China soaring 39% to 153.7bn yuan (£17.4bn). 

The number of active customers on its Chinese marketplaces, including Tmall, rose 22 million during the quarter to reach 779 million during 2020.

Revenues from Alibaba’s cloud computing division rose 50% to 16.1bn yuan (£1.8bn).

The group’s adjusted EBITDA increased 22% year on year to 68.4bn yuan (£7.8bn).

However, Alibaba warned of lingering uncertainty over the planned float of its financial affiliate Ant Group.

In November, Ant pulled the plug on its plans to float in Shanghai and Hong Kong in the wake of “significant changes in the Fintech regulatory environment in China”.

Alibaba said Ant’s business prospects and IPO plans were “subject to substantial uncertainties” and it was therefore “unable to make a complete and fair assessment of the impact that these changes and uncertainties will have on Alibaba Group”.

The etail titan’s chair and chief executive Daniel Zhang said: “China was the only major economy to achieve positive GDP growth last year. Thanks to the rapid recovery of China’s economy, Alibaba had another very healthy quarter.

“We achieved another successful 11.11 Global Shopping Festival by stimulating consumption, satisfying consumer demands and supporting the business recovery of merchants in response to the impact of the pandemic.

“Our cloud computing business continues to expand market leadership and show strong growth, reflecting the massive potential of China’s nascent cloud computing market as well as our years of investment in technology.

“Looking ahead, we are confident that we will continue to create value for our customers, lead with innovation and make our contributions to society.”