Alibaba beats expectations in latest quarterly earnings

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd raked in 161 billion yuan ($23.2 billion) revenue in its latest quarterly earnings, beating analysts' expectations as the company said it is poised to withstand "both the novel coronavirus epidemic and economic downward pressure".

Recording a 38 percent year-on-year growth for the quarter that ended Dec 31, Alibaba reported earnings per share at $2.61, also outperforming estimates of $2.22 by Wall Street analysts.

A record Singles Day shopping event and rising cloud computing revenues, which passed the 10 billion yuan's single-quarter threshold for the first time, helped boost profits for Asia's biggest tech company.

"Continued investment in user engagement, especially through social commerce content, contributed to our strong gains in annual active consumers," said CEO Daniel Zhang in a statement.

He noted the company has now mobilized all powerful sources of commerce and technology to fully support the fight against the outbreak, ensure supply of daily necessities for our communities and introduced practical relief measures for our merchants.

"No matter past, present or future, we remain true to our mission and we will support our merchants to overcome this challenging time together," he said.

The company has rolled out a total of 20 measures in supporting its partner merchants as a majority of SME businesses face disruptions from the outbreak.