It was pretty obvious based on its Singles’ Day mobile figures that Alibaba had already secured the title for the leader in mobile commerce.
Alibaba’s Q3 earnings results confirmed that position when Alibaba showed its full hand of just how much that mobile momentum had impacted its overall marketplace business. Hint: it’s a lot. Despite economic headwinds in China, Alibaba showed it had the recipe to not only retain customers, but also grow its overall active buyer base by more than 21 million (5 percent) from the quarter prior.
Simply put, as Alibaba’s CEO Daniel Zhang said during a call with analysts: “We’re crushing mobile.”
Just to give his comments a little context, Alibaba’s China marketplace revenues increased 35 percent from the year prior to roughly $4.43 billion. Mobile revenue, however, grew by 192 percent from the year prior to roughly $2.89 billion. Overall revenue grew 32 percent to $5.33 billion for the quarter. Profit hit roughly $1.9 billion for the quarter.
Active buyers on Alibaba’s retail marketplaces grew to 407 million in the quarter. Mobile monthly active users hit 393 million, an increase of 47 million in the same time period. Total GMV hit $149 billion, a 23 percent YOY increase.
And mobile? Mobile GMV in Alibaba’s China marketplaces for the quarter hit a total of $101 billion, an increase of 99 percent compared to the same quarter of 2014. Mobile GMV accounted for 68 percent of total GMV. And that’s why Alibaba’s CEO gets to make the claim that it’s “crushing mobile.”
“Alibaba Group had an outstanding quarter, reaching a milestone of over 400 million annual active buyers and continuing our unrivaled leadership in mobile. Our proven ability to deliver an unparalleled consumer experience and to help merchants attract, engage and retain buyers will drive future growth in our core business,” Zhang wrote in the company’s earnings release. “We remain focused on our top strategic priorities, including global imports, rural expansion, increasing our footprint in first-tier Chinese cities and building a world-class cloud computing business.”
Alibaba also shared some figures on its Singles’ Day Global Shopping Festival. This included the previously reported figures of $14 billion in GMV settled through Alipay across its platforms. That’s from 115 million buyers in a 24-hour period. Alibaba processed 467 million delivery orders and there were 95 million mobile users who made purchases on its marketplaces during the shopping festival.
On its O2O side, Alibaba is also seeing strong growth. Koubei, the local services joint venture with Ant Financial saw $2.4 billion in GMV that was transaction through Alipay during Q3. Daily transactions in December hit more than 5 million in December.
Koubei is an expansion of Alibaba/Alipay’s mobile business that seek to blend the “real world” and “online” shopping experience into a single, fluid, commerce event – mainly by focusing on restaurants and brick-and-mortar stores. On the platform, Ant Financial provides merchants with tools.
O2O is a natural expansion of Alibaba’s mobile business, as it works to navigate the switch to a digital commerce environment dominated not by computers but by devices. O2O services allow Alibaba to capture the attention of shoppers wherever they are, whenever they are shopping. An Alibaba customer in a brick-and-mortar shop can look to the Alibaba’s app discounts and promotions, use their Alipay Wallets for purchases, or order goods from local stores for delivery.
Alibaba also showed strength in its cross-border commerce efforts to encourage brands and retailers to sell to consumers in China. On Tmall Global, for global imports, there was a 179 percent YOY growth in the quarter, with more than 200 international brands opening stores on the site.
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