With the ticking sound of the last second, the transaction volume of major e-commerce platforms broke records one after another, and Double 11 successfully concluded.
On November 15th, Alibaba also released its Q2 financial report for the fiscal year 2025, which showed that Alibaba's quarterly revenue was 236.503 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5%.
In terms of core business, from July to September, the order volume of Taotian increased by double digits year-on-year, and the number of 88VIP members increased by double digits to 46 million. It is worth noting that the financial report revealed that during this year's Double 11 period, the number of buyers on Taobao and Tmall reached a historic high.
Alibaba Group CEO Wu Yongming said, "This quarter, Taobao's business continues to invest in user experience, enrich product supply, and better serve consumers. We have established long-term cooperation with technology peers to expand payment and logistics services on Taobao and Tmall platforms, and expect to bring significant incremental effects to the overall platform
This year's Singles' Day market will usher in a new competitive landscape, as platforms bid farewell to the lowest prices across the internet and the duration of the Singles' Day promotion will be extended. The interconnection and interoperability of top e-commerce platforms have been accelerated, and the smoothness of shopping processes between platforms has been improved. A series of development and reform measures have been introduced, and policies to expand domestic demand and promote consumption have been implemented.
The number of buyers on Double 11 has reached a historic high, and interconnectivity has driven a significant increase in new transaction users
According to the financial report, the revenue for this quarter was 236.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5%; The net profit was 43.547 billion yuan (6.205 billion US dollars), a year-on-year increase of 63%.
Adjusted EBITA (a non GAAP financial indicator) decreased by 5% year-on-year to RMB 40.561 billion (USD 5.78 billion). As of September 30, 2024 (this quarter), the non GAAP net profit was RMB 36.518 billion (USD 5.204 billion), a decrease of 9% compared to RMB 40.188 billion in the same period of 2023.
In terms of specific business, this quarter, the order volume of Taotian Group increased by double digits year-on-year, driving the growth of online GMV. The number of 88VIP members with high purchasing power increased by double digits year-on-year, reaching a scale of 46 million.
This year's Singles' Day is an important node for the interconnection and intercommunication of e-commerce platforms. Taobao and Tmall have further broken down barriers between platforms through their cooperation with WeChat Pay.
On the eve of Singles' Day, Taobao has taken a series of measures such as loosening the "refund only" policy, launching a return app, and providing online experience. In September, Taobao announced the integration of WeChat Pay and officially opened it to consumers on September 27th. In addition, Taobao's direct shopping function on WeChat was officially launched on October 8th. This means that consumers can directly complete Taobao shopping within the WeChat app without having to jump back to the Taobao app. The launch of these features has also brought more traffic and users to Taobao. The financial report shows a significant increase in Taobao's new trading users.
Financial report data shows that during the Double 11 period, Taobao and Tmall achieved growth in GMV (total transaction volume), with a record high number of buyers. 589 brands had a total transaction volume of over 100 million, breaking historical records.
Wu Yongming stated at the performance meeting that under the current economic background, a series of national and local fiscal and monetary policy stimulus measures, combined with purchase subsidy plans for household appliances, automobiles, and other products, are stimulating growth and sales in related fields. These measures are not only beneficial for boosting the market in the short term, but also for the recovery and enhancement of long-term consumption. At the same time, brand merchants and factories have improved their financial situation by optimizing inventory, thereby promoting new product research and development, which has a positive impact on e-commerce platforms dominated by brand flagship stores and is expected to continue driving consumer trends.
The performance will show that Alibaba plans to enhance its market competitiveness by strengthening core capability investments, optimizing user experience, and expanding product categories. Specific measures include increasing the diversity and competitiveness of commodity supply, investing in artificial intelligence related products and technologies, improving after-sales service, logistics experience, and front-end user interface. At the same time, we also pay attention to the synergies with our partner WeChat Pay, which is expected to bring significant growth in user volume, although there may be fluctuations in transaction volume in the short term.
Alibaba Cloud's revenue has accelerated compared to previous quarters, while the local lifestyle group's losses have narrowed year-on-year
In response to the investment strategy and user growth strategy of Taotian platform in the coming quarters, the management emphasized the continuous investment in improving user experience and merchant supply at the performance meeting. Meanwhile, the integration of new payment methods is expected to promote the growth of new users and improve process efficiency. The overall strategy of the group is in the investment phase, focusing on investment efficiency and looking forward to larger scale investments through improving CMR.
According to the financial report, Alibaba Cloud's revenue has accelerated compared to previous quarters, with double-digit growth in revenue from public cloud products and triple digit growth in revenue from AI related products. We are more confident in the prospects of our core business than in the past and will continue to invest to support long-term growth, "said Wu Yongming
According to the financial report, focusing on the integrated development of "cloud+AI", Alibaba Cloud's commercial revenue growth has accelerated, with quarterly revenue increasing by 7% year-on-year. It continues to be driven by double-digit growth in public cloud, and AI related product revenue has achieved triple digit year-on-year growth for five consecutive quarters; Adjusted EBITA increased by 89% year-on-year.
At this year's Yunqi Conference, Alibaba Cloud comprehensively upgraded its AI infrastructure and reduced API call rates. Since the implementation of the "AI driven" strategy one year ago, multiple businesses under Alibaba have been focusing on AI. Taobao has launched its AI product "Business Manager" for all merchants, serving a total of 4 million merchants during this year's Double 11 shopping festival. Recently, Alibaba International released a large-scale commercial translation model. According to the financial report, from the first open source in 2023 to September 30, 2024, there have been over 70000 derivative models developed based on the Tongyi family in the Hugging Face community.
The overseas business continues to grow. The financial report shows that in this quarter, Alibaba International Digital Business Group's revenue increased by 29% year-on-year, and the economic benefits of AliExpress and Trendyol's AliExpress Choice business units improved month on month. The collaboration between AliExpress and Cainiao has been strengthened, and the average fulfillment time on AliExpress has significantly decreased compared to the previous period. The revenue growth of cross-border logistics fulfillment solutions has driven Cainiao's quarterly revenue to increase by 8% year-on-year.
This quarter, the revenue of the local lifestyle group increased by 14% year-on-year to 17.725 billion yuan (2.526 billion US dollars), driven by the growth of orders from Gaode and Ele.me, as well as the growth of marketing service revenue. This quarter, benefiting from improved operational efficiency and increased business scale, the local lifestyle group's losses narrowed year-on-year. During the National Day holiday in October this year, the peak daily active users of Gaode exceeded 300 million, setting a new historical high. The revenue of Da Culture and Entertainment Group was 5.694 billion yuan (811 million US dollars), a year-on-year decrease of 1%. The losses of Da Culture and Entertainment Group have narrowed year-on-year.
New Beijing News Shell Finance Reporter Cheng Zijiao