Alibaba reports growth in e-commerce and cloud computing sectors

Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd said its revenue stood at 247.65 billion yuan ($34.6 billion) during the April-June period, an increase of 2 percent year-on-year, with its core e-commerce and cloud computing businesses reporting robust growth.

The company's net income stood at 42.4 billion yuan during the second quarter, up 76 percent year-on-year, primarily due to mark-to-market changes from its equity investments and gains from the disposal of the local consumer service business Trendyol, partly offset by the decrease in income from operations.

Wu Yongming, CEO of Alibaba Group, said the company's strategic focus on consumption and AI delivered strong growth during the quarter. "Driven by robust AI demand, Cloud Intelligence Group experienced accelerated revenue growth, and AI-related product revenue is now a significant portion of revenue from external customers," he said.

Wu added that Alibaba remains committed to investing in its two strategic pillars of consumption and AI plus cloud to capture historic opportunities and drive long-term growth.

For the quarter ending June 30, revenue from its cloud business rose 26 percent year-on-year to 33.4 billion yuan. This momentum was primarily driven by public cloud revenue growth, including the increasing adoption of AI-related products.

AI-related product revenue achieved triple-digit year-on-year growth for the eighth consecutive quarter. The company said that, as AI demand continues to grow rapidly, it is seeing increased demand for computing, storage and other public cloud services to support AI adoption.

It will continue to invest in anticipation of customer growth and technology innovation, including AI products and services, to increase cloud adoption for AI.

Alibaba's significant investment in instant retail through the launching of its "Taobao Instant Commerce" service contributed to a 25 percent year-on-year increase in monthly active consumers on the Taobao app in the first three weeks of August.