The Chinese titan said an increase in monthly active users of its Taobao app and its “new retail strategy” helped drive growth. New retail includes its physical stores called Hema, as well as the food delivery service Ele.me that Alibaba now owns.
Alibaba has tried to bolster the division by striking partnerships with big U.S. consumer brands. Earlier this month, luxury jeweler Tiffany & Co said it would begin selling products on Alibaba’s Tmall site. And Kroger said it would sell some products on Tmall.
But Alibaba is not just an e-commerce player. It has been pushing its cloud business in recent years, and while still a small part of overall revenues, the growth has been huge. Cloud computing revenues totaled 4.7 billion yuan, a 93 percent year-on-year rise.
The company has opened new data centers around the world and launched new products in key markets like Europe to try to boost market share and revenues.
“The exceptional growth across our major segments of core commerce, cloud computing and digital media and entertainment validates our strategy of investing in customer experience, product, technology and infrastructure for the future,” Maggie Wu, chief financial officer at Alibaba, said in a statement Thursday.
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