China’s Strength and Its Shopping Lift Alibaba’s Results -<br />By PAUL MOZURMAY 18, 2017<br />HONG KONG — China’s vast ranks of consumers are finding ways to spend more money online — and that’s good news for Alibaba.<br />The Alibaba Group, the Chinese e-commerce giant that a few years ago led the biggest share listing in the history of the American stock market, on Thursday posted strong profit growth<br />and better-than-expected sales growth for the three months that ended in March.<br />The results show Alibaba has a long way to go before it can diversify its business<br />amid expectations that even China’s online sales boom has its limits.<br />Alibaba’s revenue for the year grew more than twice as fast as its gross merchandise volume, a<br />measure of sales volume, meaning much of the rise did not come from simply selling more stuff.<br />The surge came as Chinese government statistics showed an increase in online retail sales as well as stronger overall economic growth.
