“Therefore, although we are seeing some positive signs, it is still too early to tell as the macro environment is broadly affected by the weakness in the real estate sector,” he added.
Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
Eddie Wu Yongming, who took over as chief executive officer of the domestic e-commerce division in December last year, said Taobao and Tmall Group's gross merchandise merchandise value (GMV) would “gradually return to healthy growth” during the fiscal year. ” I predict.
According to Alibaba, Taobao and Tmall Group achieved double-digit year-on-year growth in GMV in the March quarter.
“In the second half of the fiscal year, we will gradually introduce new monetization mechanisms aligned with new platform algorithms and product features that will further drive revenue. We will further gain consumer trust and increase market share. I am very confident that we can maintain our leadership.''
Regarding the increasing competition in China's e-commerce space, Wu said the company has “made very clear strategic choices regarding Taobao on how to deal with future competition.”
In cloud computing, which is one of Alibaba's key growth drivers, Wu said the division's “leading product portfolio, significant infrastructure investments and aggressive industry partner strategy.”
In addition to strengthening the integration of cloud services and generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology, the group improved the competitiveness of its cloud sector through price reductions for various services.
“We've seen customer demand for AI increase rapidly,” Wu said. “It has also stimulated growth in demand for traditional cloud computing needs, such as general computing, storage, and big data.”
The group also touted the synergies between Tongyi Qianwen's large-scale language models and cloud computing product portfolio.
“There is a natural fit between our Tongyi LLM and our cloud business,” Wu said, referring to the technology behind ChatGPT and other generative AI services.
Jiang Huang, head of Alibaba's international digital commerce group, said the business's rapid growth was the result of “aggressive investments in new markets,” which led to the division's losses last quarter. .
The company also announced plans on Tuesday for a preliminary listing in Hong Kong, which is currently expected to be completed by the end of August.
A “dual primary listing'' that simultaneously prioritizes Hong Kong for the company's listing location is expected to help unlock more value. The move reduces a company's dependence on a single stock market and acts as a hedge against geopolitical or economic issues in a particular market.
A primary listing in Hong Kong would allow investors in China to buy Alibaba shares directly and could qualify the company to participate in Hong Kong's Stock Connect scheme with exchanges in Shanghai and Shenzhen. There is.
The announcement followed Alibaba's previous attempt to complete the process of upgrading its presence on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange from a secondary listing to a primary listing in 2022.
Three months after the announcement, Alibaba announced that it was unable to complete the transformation as planned due to “changes in market and other external conditions.”
