China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (NYSE:BABA) reported better-than-expected quarterly revenue and profit as the COVID-19 lockdown pushed more people to shop online.
The pandemic forced people in China and beyond to stay indoors and brick-and-mortar stores remained shut, resulting in a surge in demand for online orders. Sales from the company’s core commerce business rose nearly 19% to 93.87 billion yuan ($13.16 billion U.S.) in the fourth quarter and revenue at its cloud computing business surged 58%.
The e-commerce giant said it expects to generate over 650 billion yuan ($91 billion U.S.) in revenue in fiscal 2021. Overall revenue rose to 114.31 billion yuan ($16.02 billion U.S.) in the fourth quarter ended March 31 from 93.50 billion yuan ($13 billion U.S.) a year earlier.
Analysts had expected revenue of 107.04 billion yuan ($15 billion U.S.), according to data from Refinitiv. Excluding some items, the company earned 9.20 yuan ($1.29 U.S.) per American Depository Share (ADS). Analysts were expecting 6.10 yuan ($0.85 U.S.) per ADS, according to Refinitiv.
