(Yicai Global) Nov. 3 -- China's largest e-commerce player Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. [NYSE:BABA] has released its third-quarter results, reporting a double-digit rise in revenue and their cloud computing business has more than doubled from the same period last year.
"Alibaba Group had a great quarter," said Daniel Zhang, a chief executive at the company said. Alibaba's revenue reached CNY34.292 billion (USD5.142 billion), an increase of 55 percent from last year. Its net profit, however was down 69 percent at CNY7.075 billion (USD1.061 billion).
Analysts believe the decrease in net profit was not due to operating costs but down to non-recurring gains of CNY18.6 billion recorded during the same period last year as a result of a re-evaluation of the assets of Alibaba Health Information Technology Limited, absent from this year's report.
"Beyond the strong performance of our core commerce business, we are pleased with the continued rapid growth of our cloud computing business. We also see huge potential in our newly integrated digital media and entertainment unit." Zhang said.
Alibaba Cloud achieved revenue of CNY1.49 billion this quarter, up 130 percent from the previous year. Their net loss was significant at CNY400 million, however this was substantially less than the CNY730 million loss a year ago. Market analysts expect Alibaba Cloud to break even in the coming quarter.
Alibaba founder Jack Ma has high hopes for Alibaba Cloud, saying that cloud computing is a core strategy of Alibaba's in the next decade.
