Alibaba’s revenue jumps 56 percent in third quarter

China's e-commerce giant Alibaba said Thursday that its revenue jumped 56 percent year-on-year to 83 billion yuan (about 12.7 billion U.S. dollars) in the third fiscal quarter.

"Alibaba had another great quarter driven by the continued strength of the Chinese consumer and the wide and innovative range of services we provide for merchants and consumers," Alibaba chief executive Daniel Zhang said in an earnings report.

A logo of Alibaba Group is pictured on the rooftop of an office building in Shenzhen, south China’s Guangdong province, April 29, 2017. [File photo: IC]

The strong earnings were fuelled by record-breaking sales during the annual Singles Day shopping festival on Nov. 11.

Net income jumped to 23.3 billion yuan between October and December, up 36 percent year on year.

"Given our strong performance and clear visibility as we approach the end of the fiscal year, we are taking up our 2018 fiscal year revenue guidance to 55 to 56 percent," said Maggie Wu, chief financial officer of Alibaba.

"Our core business generated significant free cash flow of 7.1 billion U.S. dollars during the quarter, enabling us to invest in New Retail, cloud computing, digital entertainment and globalization," Wu said.

Its core commerce business revenue increased 57 percent year-on-year to 73 billion yuan. Strong growth has also been posted in cloud computing, digital media, entertainment and innovation initiatives.

The number of active consumers on its retail marketplaces reached a new high of 515 million, the company said. 

Its third fiscal quarter was from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, 2017.