Alibaba sold its U.S. e-commerce portal 11Main to rival OpenSky. (Photo : Reuters)
Alibaba, China’s leading e-commerce firm, has recently announced its first-quarter earnings for the year 2015.
Pulling in around RMB 17.4 billion from the Q1 of last year's RMB 12.2 billion, the company has posted a 45-percent year-on-year increase. The statistic is 5 points higher than the 40 percent forecast of analysts.
Alibaba's net income for the month ending March hit RMB 2.8 billion, making the firm's year-on-year difference a 49-percent decrease. According to firm officials, the drop can be traced to its share-based payments after its IPO.
Meanwhile, its non-GAAP income increased by 16 percent, reaching RMB 7.7 billion.
Alibaba's gross merchandise value (GMV) increased by 24 percent quarter-on-quarter and 40-percent year-on-year, hitting an RMB 600 billion mark. Fifty-one percent of this figure came from the firm's mobile GMV, an increase from last quarter's 42 percent.
Moreover, Alibaba has also recently announced that its current COO Daniel Zhang will take the role of the company's CEO, replacing Jonathan Liu. Zhang is regarded as the firm's main driver for its popular Singles Day sales.
Analysts have also voiced out their concern regarding Alibaba's capacity to maintain its growth following its explosive IPO. This issue is on top of the decrease of its market value to $70 billion only after six months.
As well, the e-commerce giant is facing the alleged issue of producing counterfeit good sales, as reported by the country's State Administration for Industry and Commerce.
The move has alarmed the company, stating that it could induce fear for future investors and ultimately affect its performance in the market.
