China’s Alibaba Manages 5% Revenue Advance as Profits Are Lifted by Investment Gains

variety.com:

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Alibaba Group, China’s e-commerce, entertainment and tech giant, reported a 5% increase in revenues to RMB237 billion ($33.7 billion) in the three months to September.

It reported a 63% increase in net profits to RMB43.7 billion ($6.25 billion), but said that the bottom line surge was primarily attributable to the mark-to-market changes from equity investments, decrease in impairment of investments and increase in income from operations.

Indeed, non-GAAP net income, which in many years has been the group’s preferred indicator of profitability, was RMB36.5 billion ($5.204 billion), a decrease of 9% compared to the same quarter of 2023.

Revenue at its digital media and entertainment group was RMB5.69 billion ($811 million), a decrease of 1% year-over-year. Losses in the segment narrowed year-over-year, with long-form streaming platform Youku “progressively reducing its operating loss due to increased advertising revenue as well as improved content investment efficiency during the quarter.” Alibaba does not disclose Youku’s subscriber count.