Alibaba posts slowest-ever revenue growth since 2014

Tech giant Alibaba (9988) reported its slowest-ever increase in quarterly revenue since going public in 2014, as tepid growth in its core e-commerce business and intensifying competition ate into sales.

Net income attributable to shareholders slumped to 20.43 billion yuan (HK$25.22 billion) in the third quarter from 79.43 billion yuan a year earlier.

Revenue rose about 10 percent to 242.6 billion yuan. Analysts on an average had expected revenue of 246.37 billion yuan, according to Refinitiv data.

The increase was mainly driven by revenue growth in China's commerce segment by 7 percent year-on-year to 172.23 billion yuan, the cloud segment by 20 percent to 19.54 billion, local consumer services segment by 27 percent to 12.14 billion and the international commerce segment by 18 percent to 16.45 billion, the company said in an exchange filing.

Annual active consumers of the Alibaba ecosystem across the world reached approximately 1.28 billion in 2021, up by about 43 million from the 12 months ended September 30, 2021. This included 979 million consumers in China and 301 million consumers overseas, representing a quarterly net increase of over 26 million and 16 million respectively, the filing said.

The slowing Chinese economy has taken a toll on the e-commerce company, as consumers cut back discretionary spending. Last November, during its annual Singles' Day promotional event, the company recorded gross merchandise value growth of 8.5 percent, a record low, Reuters reported.

For the quarter ended December 31, 2021, the online physical goods gross merchandise volume for Taobao and Tmall, excluding unpaid orders, recorded single-digit year-on-year growth, primarily due to slowing market conditions as well as competition, the filing said. By categories, the year-on-year growth of physical goods GMV for apparel and accessories and consumer electronic categories were slower than overall average growth, while growth in fast moving consumer goods, or FMCG, and home furnishing categories were faster.

Alibaba is also facing intensifying pressure from rivals like TikTok-owned ByteDance and Kuaishou (1024), who have capitalized on the booming trend of livestreaming e-commerce.

The firm repurchased approximately 10.1 million of its AMerican depositary shares for approximately US$1.4 billion (HK$10.9 billion) this quarter, said Maggie Wu, Alibaba's chief financial officer.

Shares of Alibaba slid 6.67 percent before the result to a record low at HK$104.90 since its Hong Kong listing, before the ADS's further dropped by around 5 percent in the US pre-opening session.