Internet majors see accelerated growth

Chinese internet heavyweights have returned to a rapid upward trajectory fueled by the continuously improved business environment and the application of rapidly evolving artificial intelligence technology, as they posted the fastest quarterly revenue growth in core businesses.

Experts said the robust financial performance demonstrates the immense potential and resilience of Chinese platform enterprises, which have played a pivotal role in expanding domestic demand and boosting consumption, stabilizing employment and driving economic growth.

Alibaba Group said on Thursday that its revenue stood at 236.45 billion yuan ($32.8 billion) during the January-March period, up 7 percent year-on-year, while its net income reached 29.85 billion yuan, rising 22 percent year-on-year.

Notably, revenue from its cloud computing business logged the highest growth level in three years, surging 18 percent year-on-year to 30.13 billion yuan, with AI-related product revenue achieving triple-digit growth for the seventh consecutive quarter.

Wu Yongming, CEO of Alibaba Group, said that looking ahead, the company will remain focused on its core businesses and continue to drive AI and cloud businesses as a new engine for its long-term growth.

The company has announced that it will invest more than 380 billion yuan in building cloud and AI hardware infrastructure in the next three years. The investment figure exceeds Alibaba's total cloud and AI spending over the past decade, highlighting its focus on an AI-driven growth strategy.

JD posted better-than-expected financial results, with its revenue reaching 301.1 billion yuan in the first quarter, an increase of 15.8 percent year-on-year. This represents the highest year-on-year growth rate for the company in nearly three years.

Xu Ran, CEO of JD, said that its earnings were boosted by improving consumer sentiment and continued enhancements to JD's supply chain capabilities and user experience. The company aims to capture the emerging market opportunities driven by consumption support policies and the rise of AI large language models.

Jiang Han, a senior analyst at market consultancy Pangoal, said that Chinese platform companies, which mainly leverage digital platforms to provide services such as e-commerce, payment, short videos and games, have effectively stimulated domestic demand and consumption by providing products and services online for consumers.

"They have created a large number of jobs, including logistics and distribution, customer services and software development, and played a critical role in bolstering technological innovation, especially in AI, which will be conducive to enhancing production efficiency and bolstering industrial upgrading," Jiang said.

He noted that their strong performance in earnings results reflects China's continued efforts to promote the healthy and well-regulated development of the platform economy by creating a favorable business environment and removing market barriers, while significantly boosting their vitality and confidence. Meanwhile, these companies' increased investments in cutting-edge technologies, such as AI, have already yielded substantial returns.

Tencent Holdings said that its revenue rose 13 percent year-on-year to 180 billion yuan in the first quarter, its largest quarterly income since listing in Hong Kong in 2004, driven by continued efforts in AI and video gaming.

NetEase reported a 7.4 percent year-on-year increase in total revenue, beating market expectations, as the company continues to innovate with AI-driven enhancements in gaming experiences and educational services.

Zhu Keli, founding director of the China Institute of New Economy, said that the platform economy has become the core engine driving China's economic transformation and upgrading, with its resilience reflected in the highly efficient matching ability between supply and demand.

Highlighting platform companies' significant role in fostering new growth drivers, Zhu called for efforts to encourage enterprises to beef up investment in state-of-the-art technologies and forward-looking fields that better empower the real economy.

China's tech and internet sector has garnered revamped interest from investors since the appearance of the AI large language model DeepSeek in January. Leading internet companies have invested large sums of money into a new race to develop and integrate the most cutting-edge AI applications.

fanfeifei@chinadaily.com.cn