Alibaba: Results decreased by 86 percent

Alibaba Group, China's e-commerce giant, presented its results for the fourth quarter of 2023.

Fourth-quarter revenues rose 7 percent compared to the same period in 2022, reaching RMB221.87 billion ($30.73 billion), above expectations of RMB219.66 billion.

On the other hand, profits attributable to ordinary shareholders fell significantly to RMB3.3 billion ($453 million), a decline of 86 percent compared to the same period last year.

According to Alibaba, the decline is mainly due to losses from investments in listed companies, compared to the gains of these investments in the same period last year.

The share fell by about 5 percent in the pre-trade phase in the United States.

Sector results

Taobao and Tmall, Alibaba's two main e-commerce areas in China, saw revenue increase by 4 percent to 93.2 billion yuan.

Alibaba's cloud division generated revenue of 25.6 billion yuan, up 3 percent from the same quarter last year. The company is cutting back on low-margin projects and is betting on growth within its AI-related products and public cloud offerings.

The international digital commerce business showed strong growth with revenue increasing 45 percent to 27.4 billion yuan. The growth was driven by an increase in AliExpress orders and strong performance in other cross-border initiatives.

Cainiao, Alibaba's logistics division, achieved revenue growth of 30 percent to 24.6 billion yuan. The growth was mainly driven by the services that support AliExpress.

Increase the stock buyback program

The company announced that it will increase its stock buyback program by $25 billion. Adm.dir. Eddie Wu expressed optimism about the future and emphasized the company's focus on improving customer experience and accelerating growth in both its e-commerce and cloud business.