B2B ecommerce company Alibaba.com Limited posted financial results for the third quarter, ended September 30, 2008. Total revenue was up 37% for the quarter, year-over-year, and net income (profit attributable to equity owners) increased 49% year-over-year. The company also announced that its board of directors has authorized a share repurchase program of up to HK$2 billion (approximately US$258 million) through the end of 2009.
Alibaba's increased penetration of domestic online trade continued to drive revenue from its China marketplace, which grew 79% year-over-year and contributed 38% of total revenue in the third quarter, compared to 29% a year ago.
Alibaba added 3.1 million registered users, 393,142 storefronts and 30,345 paying members during the quarter. It added 1.3 million registered users on its international marketplace during the quarter, up 74% year-on-year, reflecting strong international buyer activity.
Its combined marketplaces had 35.6 million registered users, an increase of 40% year-over-year and 10% from the previous quarter. Alibaba had 6.9 million registered users on its international marketplace and 28.7 million registered users on its China marketplace.
The number of paying members of its combined marketplaces was 398,351, an increase of 46% year-over-year. Paying members consisted of 30,836 Gold Supplier members and 15,016 International TrustPass members from the international marketplace, and 352,499 China TrustPass members from the China marketplace.
As of September 30, 2008, the total number of storefronts on Alibaba's marketplaces grew to 4.2 million, an increase of 54% year-over-year. There were 868,379 storefronts on the international marketplace and 3.3 million storefronts on the China marketplace.
Alibaba.com CEO David Wei said, "China's economy remains one of the relative bright spots in the world economy, driven by domestic investment and consumption growth. Our China marketplace for domestic trade was the main driver of revenue growth during the quarter, and its revenue increased 79% over last year. The China marketplace accounted for 38% of our revenue during the quarter, up from 29% from a year ago. This reflects the success of our strategy to achieve a more balanced mix of revenues from our two core marketplaces. We believe that the current difficulties in the macro-economic environment present us with unprecedented opportunities to strengthen our business and build long-term shareholder value."
Wei said Alibaba.com would be investing in a number of areas to support its growing community of members in 2009, including user loyalty, customer acquisition and service, product development, technology infrastructure and staff development. "We have been encouraged by recent moves of the Chinese government to stimulate the economy and help the local export sector. In the long run we are confident that China will retain its position as the world's leading export center. With our strong financial foundation and leadership position, we are in an excellent position to capture the opportunities ahead. Our recent initiatives reflect our optimism for China's e-commerce development and our commitment to being a major driver of this development."
The company also said it is making significant commitments to explore the India market and has made steady progress towards its customer acquisition initiative through a re-seller arrangement with Infomedia India.
Alibaba recently announced two major initiatives to bring more benefits to buyers and suppliers in its global import/export marketplace. VeriSign will provide authentication and verification services to verify the identity of suppliers displayed on the Alibaba.com website. And the Gold Supplier Starter Pack is a new entry-level product that will extend Alibaba.com's premium storefront service to a broader group of export suppliers in core customer markets in mainland China, as well as new markets such as Hong Kong and Taiwan.
http://www.alibaba.com
