Alibaba earned 45 cents a share minus items, meeting Wall Street estimates in its fiscal second quarter. That’s a 9.4% gain vs. a year earlier, according to Alibaba, a sharp slowdown from Q1’s 60%.
Revenue rose 54% to $2.74 billion, led by a surge in mobile sales, beating estimates of $2.6 billion as polled by Thomson Reuters. It was Alibaba’s best gain in the past three quarters and its first earnings report since its record Sept. 19 initial public offering.
Margins on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization narrowed to 50.5% from 54.4% in Q1 and 59% a year earlier.
Net income fell 39% to $494 million, largely due to executive compensation and stock awards to executives and employees.
Alibaba’s multiple Web platforms handle an estimated 80% of consumer e-commerce in China.
Gross merchandise volume, the value of all goods sold via its websites, rose 49% to $90.5 billion, faster than the previous two quarters of 46% and 45% growth.
Mobile had been a relative weak spot for Alibaba, but that’s changing fast. It accounted for 36% of GMV, or $32 billion, more than triple the $9 billion from a year earlier.
Alibaba added 29 million mobile monthly active users in the quarter to 217 million, up 139% from a year earlier.
Total revenue via mobile devices hit $606 million, up more than 1,000% from a year earlier.
Alibaba ended the quarter with 307 million active buyers, a 52% increase from a year earlier. Tsai pointed out on the call that 307 million equals almost the entire U.S. population, but is only about half of Chinese Internet users and less than a fourth of China’s total population.
