Alibaba revenue up 51% in last fiscal year

HANGZHOU - China's e-commerce giant Alibaba said Wednesday that its revenue for the fiscal year ending March 2019 surged 51 percent year-on-year to 376.84 billion yuan ($54.78 billion).

The increase was mainly driven by the robust revenue growth of its China commerce retail business and the consolidation of Ele.me, as well as strong revenue growth of Alibaba Cloud.

As of the end of March, the annual active consumers on its China retail marketplaces reached 654 million, an increase of 102 million from a year ago.

Alibaba also announced its fourth quarter results.

Its revenue rose 51 percent to 93.5 billion yuan in the quarter.

The giant's cloud computing revenue grew 76 percent year-on-year to 7.73 billion yuan during the quarter, primarily driven by an increase in average spending per customer.

In the fiscal year 2019, Alibaba Cloud served more than half of the A-share listed companies in China, according to its report.

The adjusted EBITA for core commerce was 27.48 billion yuan in the quarter, up 24 percent year-on-year.

"Over the years, our steady profit growth and cash flow have enabled us to strengthen our core business, invest in new businesses and create unique value for our customers. These investments have expanded our total addressable market and positioned us well for long-term growth," said Maggie Wu, CFO of Alibaba Group.

"Looking ahead to fiscal 2020, we expect revenue to be over 500 billion yuan, reflecting our confidence and positive momentum going forward," Wu said.