Alibaba is still grappling with the economic fallout from nationwide Covid-related lockdowns and a near-economic contraction in China. Smaller rival JD.com Inc., which escaped the worst of the crackdown, is overtaking Alibaba in sales growth, while up-and-coming competitors such as ByteDance Ltd. to Pinduoduo Inc. are drawing more users away.
Alibaba Group Holding logged better-than-projected quarterly revenue, after the e-commerce giant fought to course-correct while navigating both US and Chinese regulatory scrutiny.
Revenue came to 205.6 billion yuan (US$30.4 billion, $41.9 billion) in the June quarter, barely changed from a year earlier but enough to beat an average projection for 204 billion yuan. Net income fell 50% to 22.7 billion yuan. Its US shares surged more than 5% in pre-market trading in New York.
