Alibaba saw its turnover climb 35?% in the past fiscal year, beating its own forecasts by a landslide. The coronavirus crisis pushed the platform's total sales over a trillion dollars, a record.
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A billion customers
Alibaba has broken yet another record: in its financial year?2020, up to the end of March, the company's gross merchandise volume from e-commerce surpassed a trillion dollars (920?billion euros). The lion's share still came from China (870?billion euros). The company's turnover went up by 35?% to 65,6?billion euros, while EBITDA rose 29?% to 20,5?billion euros.
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The company says it is now almost at the milestone of a billion users worldwide, currently having 780?million consumers in China en 180?million abroad. Almost three quarters of new customers come from less developed areas, a segment heavily targeted by Alibaba through physical retail and collaborations with small, local shops.
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"Corona success"
The company's fourth quarter (January to March) included almost the whole corona crisis in China and was a huge push forwards for Alibaba: the number of online orders went up by 19?%, largely courtesy of the lockdowns. Total turnover climbed from 12?to 14,7?billion euros, while the company had forecast a turnover drop in its fourth quarter.
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The crisis did hit the profits hard though, with EBITDA only climbing 1?% and net profits dropping by 88?%. Lower share prices meant revenue from investments were significantly lower. On the bright side, turnover from cloud-computing went up 58?%.
