Alibaba ended the quarter with a net loss of $2.9 billion

Alibaba Group presented one of the weakest financial reporting since the IPO in 2014. Thus, the revenue of a Chinese technology company at the end of the year grew by only 3% in annual terms, to 207.2 billion yuan ($29.12 billion). Analysts polled by Refinitiv, on average, expected revenue growth to 208.6 billion yuan. And customer service revenue, which determines how much sellers pay to trade on the site, fell 7% in the quarter, the worst performance in Alibaba’s history.

Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang attributed the weak revenue performance to weak consumer demand in China amid ongoing COVID-19 lockdowns.

The company ended the third quarter with a net loss of 20.56 billion yuan ($2.89 billion). A year earlier, Alibaba reported a net profit of 3.38 billion yuan. However, the current losses are not primarily related to the activities of the company itself, but to the global fall in stock indices this year and, as a result, the depreciation of Alibaba’s investments in shares of other companies. Excluding investment losses, the company ended the third quarter with a profit of 33.8 billion yuan ($4.75 billion).

In addition, Alibaba management announced another increase in the share buyback program – by another $15 billion in addition to $25 billion. declared in March of this year.

As a result, Alibaba shares on the NYSE are up nearly 8%.

Kirill Sarkhanyants