HONG KONG – Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce company, reported better-than-expected third-quarter results, as revenue soared at its shopping sites, cloud computing unit and its video streaming services.
Shares of Alibaba rose more than 3 per cent before the stock market opened in New York Wednesday.
The company said its Taobao shopping app, which has been live-streaming makeup and fashion demonstrations, helped increase revenue for its entire e-commerce business unit by 41 per cent. Its cloud computing business, which stores data and important information, has been picking up new customers, such as financial institutions, media companies and government agencies. Revenue at Alibaba Cloud jumped 130 per cent, the company said. And the popularity of new shows on video streaming site Youku Tudou helped boost revenue at Alibaba’s digital media and entertainment more than 300 per cent.
Overall, the Hong Kong-based company reported net income of $1.14 billion, or 45 cents per share, the quarter that ended Sept. 30.
Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs and stock option expense, came to 79 cents per share, beating the 70 cents per share that analysts expected, according to Zacks Investment Research.
Shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. rose $3.34, or 3.3 per cent, to $104 in premarket trading Wednesday. Its shares are up about 24 per cent this year.
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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on BABA at https://www.zacks.com/ap/BABA
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Keywords: Alibaba, Earnings Report
