Alibaba breaks into Fortune China 500 list, but still trails JD.com

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has cracked the list of Fortune China 500 companies for the first time after being ranked in 81st position.

The list, compiled by using companies' gross revenue, showed that the Chinese e-commerce giant had revenue of more than 70 billion yuan ($11.3 billion) in 2014.

This is lower than its domestic e-commerce rival JD.com Inc, which was ranked 45th. Last year it occupied 79th position.

JD posted 115 billion yuan in revenue last year, up 66 percent from a year earlier, making it the highest-ranking Chinese Internet enterprise on the list.

The company is the country's largest direct sales online retailer and a significant proportion of transactions on its site are counted as revenue. In comparison, Alibaba, which functions as a platform to connect buyers with sellers, doesn't sell goods.

Fortune's report said companies in the Internet industry are rising at the fastest pace. The revenue growth rate of listed online enterprises is on average nearly 40 percent, higher than the average 5 percent growth of all listed companies.

Among the 53 new entrants on the list this year, commercial property developer Dalian Wanda Group Holdings Ltd was ranked 51. The nation's largest pork producer WH Group Ltd is listed in 35th position.

In terms of profit-making ability, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd topped the list with 275.8 billion yuan. It beat Apple Inc, the most profitable company in the United States, which raked in $39.5 billion last year.

According to the magazine, the combined gross revenue of the top 500 Chinese companies amounts to 30.4 trillion yuan, accounting for almost half of China's GDP.

China International Capital Corporation Ltd, which assisted Fortune in compiling the list, said the rankings proved that despite a slowdown in economic growth, emerging industries such as Internet-related service providers and the pharmaceutical sector are expanding quickly.