Alibaba – some way to run

• Published 12 Nov 2009

Good times could be ahead both at home and overseas for Alibaba as a result of cut prices for smaller businesses and a big foreign advertising spend.

This year might be the year of one step back, two steps forward for Alibaba Group's mainstay, Alibaba.com (1688:HKG). The website, which connects domestic small and medium-sized manufacturers with foreign distributers, continued to see net profits fall in the third quarter, dropping 20.4% year on year to Rmb 236m. This followed a net profit decline of 26.3% year on year in H1, as it works to rapidly expand its reach both at home and abroad. Revenues in the Q3 however jumped 32.1% to Rmb 1.03bn.

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