Alibaba Group Announces September Quarter 2022 Results

HANGZHOU, China–(BUSINESS WIRE)–$BABA #alibaba–Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE: BABA and HKEX: 9988, �Alibaba” or “Alibaba Group”) today announced its financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2022.

“We delivered solid results this past quarter despite ongoing macro environment challenges, which is a testament to our resilient business model and unmatched customer value proposition,” said Daniel Zhang, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Alibaba Group. “The uncertainties of the global landscape have only reinforced our resolve to focus on building capacity that will yield sustainable, high-quality growth for our customers and our own business over the long term. The trust of our shareholders has enabled Alibaba’s development over the past 23 years, and we are committed to improving shareholder return as we continue to strengthen the foundations for Alibaba’s future.”

“We generated another quarter of healthy revenue growth of 3% year-over-year in spite of the impact on consumption demand by the COVID-19 resurgence in China as well as slowing cross border commerce due to increasing logistics costs and foreign currency volatility,” said Toby Xu, Chief Financial Officer of Alibaba Group. “We have continued to take a holistic approach to improve operating efficiency and cost optimization throughout the company that resulted in adjusted EBITA growth of 29% year-over-year. With strong net cash position and cash flow generation, as of November 16, 2022, we had repurchased approximately US$18 billion of our shares under our existing US$25 billion share repurchase program. In addition, our board has approved to upsize the share repurchase program by another US$15 billion and extend the program to the end of fiscal year 2025.”

BUSINESS HIGHLIGHTS

In the quarter ended September 30, 2022:

• Revenue was RMB207,176 million (US$29,124 million), an increase of 3% year-over-year.
• Income from operations was RMB25,137 million (US$3,534 million), an increase of 68% year-over-year. The year-over-year increase was primarily attributable to an increase in adjusted EBITA, as well as a decrease in share-based compensation expense. We excluded share-based compensation expense from our non-GAAP measurements. Adjusted EBITA, a non-GAAP measurement, increased 29% year-over-year to RMB36,164 million (US$5,084 million).
• Net loss attributable to ordinary shareholders was RMB20,561 million (US$2,890 million). Net loss was RMB22,467 million (US$3,158 million), compared to net income of RMB3,377 million in the same quarter of 2021, primarily attributable to an increase in net losses arising from the decrease in market prices of our equity investments in publicly-traded companies and a decrease in share of results of equity method investees, partly offset by the increase in adjusted EBITA. We excluded net gains or losses arising from the changes in fair value of our investments from our non-GAAP measurements. Non-GAAP net income was RMB33,820 million (US$4,754 million), an increase of 19% year-over-year.
• Diluted loss per ADS was RMB7.77 (US$1.09) and diluted loss per share was RMB0.97 (US$0.14 or HK$1.07). Non-GAAP diluted earnings per ADS was RMB12.92 (US$1.82), an increase of 15% year-over-year and non-GAAP diluted earnings per share was RMB1.61 (US$0.23 or HK$1.78), an increase of 15% year-over-year.
• Net cash provided by operating activities was RMB47,112 million (US$6,623 million), an increase of 31% compared to RMB35,830 million in the same quarter of 2021. Free cash flow, a non-GAAP measurement of liquidity, was RMB35,709 million (US$5,020 million), an increase of 61% compared to RMB22,239 million in the same quarter of 2021.

BUSINESS AND STRATEGIC UPDATES

China Commerce

China commerce segment mainly includes our China commerce retail businesses such as Taobao, Tmall, Taobao Deals, Taocaicai, Freshippo, Tmall Supermarket, Sun Art, Tmall Global and Alibaba Health, as well as wholesale businesses including 1688.com.

For the quarter ended September 30, 2022, online physical goods GMV generated on Taobao and Tmall, excluding unpaid orders, declined low-single-digit year-over-year, mainly due to soft consumption demand, COVID-19 resurgence and restrictions as well as ongoing competition. However, the decline narrowed compared to the prior June quarter as key categories such as apparel and accessories and consumer electronics saw less year-over-year decline. Healthcare products and interests-based consumption categories such as outdoor and active gear, and pet care continued to exhibit resilient demand.

Taobao and Tmall continue to identify opportunities to better serve consumers of different demographics and have achieved high consumer retention. For the twelve months ended September 30, 2022, the number of consumers who each spent over RMB10,000 on Taobao and Tmall remained around 124 million with a retention rate of 98%. In November 2022, we successfully concluded our 14th annual 11.11 Global Shopping Festival and delivered results in line with last year’s GMV performance despite macro challenges and COVID 19-related impact. This year’s festival featured over 290,000 brands from over 90 countries and regions across 7,000 product categories.

Upgrading consumer shopping experience is one of the top priorities for Taobao and Tmall in fiscal year 2023. We are investing in content that generate more engagement and purchasing interest from targeted consumers as well as providing consumers with better logistics and customer service experience.

• Content – User engagement and browsing activity on the Taobao app continue to improve primarily driven by a series of enhancements on the content and recommendations displayed on the home page of the Taobao app.
• Logistics – Serviced by Cainiao and partners, doorstep parcel deliveries of Taobao and Tmall orders increased significantly year-over-year. As of September 30, 2022, doorstep delivery service for Taobao and Tmall orders was offered in more than 300 urban cities throughout China.
• Customer Service – We adopt a hybrid approach for customer service that leverages both human and AI-driven robots to resolve millions of daily queries from consumers on our platforms. During the quarter, we have continued to invest in human customer service capacity, which resulted in improving post-purchase net promoter score (NPS).

Taobao Deals, our value-for-money platform, continued to enrich product supply and enhance digital consumption experience for consumers in less developed areas. Specifically, Taobao Deals has been helping an expanding base of manufacturers to sell directly to consumers (M2C) on Taobao and Taobao Deals and, in the September quarter, paid GMV of M2C products grew more than 60% year- over-year. During the quarter, Taobao Deals significantly narrowed losses year-over-year by optimizing spending in user acquisition, and continued to improve average spending and purchase frequency of active consumers.

Taocaicai, our business offering consumers next day pick-up service for grocery and fresh goods at neighborhood pick-up points, continued to deepen its supply chain and strengthen its logistics capabilities in existing cities. During the quarter ended September 30, 2022, not only did Taocaicai GMV grow strongly at over 40% year-over-year, but it also reduced losses significantly by optimizing pricing strategy, enhancing sourcing capability and lowering operational and fulfillment costs. During the September quarter, Taocaicai continued to drive fresh produce category penetration on our China retail marketplaces, and the percentage of Taocaicai orders generated through Taobao and Taobao Deals apps continued to grow year-over-year.

During the quarter ended September 30, 2022, our direct sales and others revenue grew 6% year-over-year to RMB64,725 million (US$9,099 million), primarily driven by strong revenue growth of Freshippo with its percentage of revenue from online orders remaining high at over 65%. During the quarter, Freshippo generated healthy same store sales growth and significantly reduced losses through improved gross margin, lowered delivery costs for online orders and increased operating efficiency. Excluding those stores that were opened for less than twelve months, the vast majority of Freshippo stores are cash flow positive as of September 30, 2022.

International Commerce

International Commerce Retail

Our International commerce retail businesses include Lazada, AliExpress, Trendyol and Daraz. During the September quarter, the combined number of orders of Lazada, AliExpress, Trendyol and Daraz declined by 3% year-over-year, primarily driven by declining orders of Lazada and AliExpress, partly offset by strong order growth of Trendyol.

During the quarter, the decline in AliExpress orders slowed compared to prior quarters as the impact from European Union’s VAT rules became annualized. We continue to face challenges in cross-border e-commerce demand in Europe due to the depreciating Euro and increasing logistics costs.

In Southeast Asia, Lazada orders also declined year-over-year during the quarter, mainly due to shopping activities normalizing back to offline channels with the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions in the region. Lazada has continued to improve monetization rate by offering more value-added services as well as enhancing operating efficiency. During the quarter, losses per order for Lazada narrowed by over 25% compared to the same period last year.

During the September quarter, Trendyol’s overall orders grew by over 65% year-over-year as a result of strong growth of its e-commerce business and rapid growth of its local consumer services.

International Commerce Wholesale

Alibaba.com facilitates international trade and offers value-added services such as global logistics and trade assurance that have been increasingly adopted by global buyers and sellers. For the quarter ended September 30, 2022, our International commerce wholesale revenue grew 6% year-over-year; which was supported by increasing contribution from value-added services.

Local Consumer Services

Local consumer services segment includes “To-Home” and “To-Destination” businesses. For the quarter ended September 30, 2022, Local consumer services order volume increased by 5% year-over-year mainly driven by strong order growth of Amap business. Segment losses also continued to narrow driven by improving business operations of Ele.me.

To Home

During the quarter, Ele.me recorded positive GMV growth due to higher average order value as Ele.me continued to improve the quality and diversity of its merchant base and better engage with high frequency users through innovative marketing events and its loyalty program. For the quarter ended September 30, 2022, Ele.me’s unit economics per order continued to be positive due to increased average order value year-over-year, as well as its ongoing focus in optimizing user acquisition spending and reducing delivery cost per order.

To Destination

In the quarter ended September 30, 2022, order volume of “To-Destination” business grew rapidly year-over-year, driven by Amap business. During the week-long National Day holiday in October, Amap achieved a record high of over 220 million daily active users in China.

Cainiao

In the quarter ended September 30, 2022, revenue from Cainiao, before inter-segment elimination, grew 26% year-over-year to RMB18,282 million (US$2,570 million) of which 73% was generated from external customers. Revenue from Cainiao, after inter-segment elimination, grew 36% year-over-year to RMB13,367 million (US$1,879 million), primarily contributed by the increase in revenue from domestic consumer logistics services as a result of service model upgrade since late 2021 to enhance consumer experience, and international fulfillment solution services.

Cainiao continues to expand its international logistics network by strengthening its end-to-end logistics capabilities, including eHubs, line-haul, sorting centers and last-mile network. In October 2022, Cainiao commenced operation of two new international sorting centers, bringing the number of overseas sorting centers in operation to 12.

In China, Cainiao continues to expand its Cainiao Post network that offers a variety of value-added services to improve consumer experience and delivery efficiency, which complements our China commerce businesses. During the quarter, the total number of Cainiao Posts, including those in rural areas and universities, grew more than 20% year-over-year to over 170,000. Cainiao Posts located in urban residential communities grew to over 116,000, of which over 80,000 offer doorstep parcel delivery services.

Cloud

Our Cloud segment comprises Alibaba Cloud and DingTalk. For the quarter ended September 30, 2022, total revenue from our Cloud segment before inter-segment elimination, which includes revenue from services provided to other Alibaba businesses, was RMB26,760 million (US$3,762 million). For the quarter ended September 30, 2022, revenue after inter-segment elimination grew 4% year-over-year to RMB20,757 million (US$2,918 million) mainly driven by healthy public cloud growth, partially offset by declining hybrid cloud revenue, as we continue to drive high-quality, recurring revenue growth.

During the quarter, after inter-segment elimination, revenue growth from non-Internet industries continued to improve, growing 28% year-over-year and contributing 58% of overall Cloud revenue. Strong revenue growth of the non-Internet industries was driven by financial services, telecommunication and public services industries. Revenue from customers in the Internet industry declined by 18% year-over-year that was mainly driven by declining revenue from the top Internet customer that has gradually stopped using our overseas cloud services for its international business due to non-product related requirements and online education customers, as well as by softening demand from other customers in China’s Internet industry.

Alibaba Cloud

Alibaba Cloud continues to develop, expand and support our partners to better serve our enterprise customers. Highlights of our proprietary technologies during our annual Apsara Conference in November 2022 include:

Data Centers and Hardware:

• Cloud Infrastructure Processing Unit (or CIPU) is our cloud infrastructure system solely for Alibaba Group’s proprietary use that brings IDC compute, storage, and network infrastructure into the cloud and supports hardware acceleration. Today, Alibaba Group’s core businesses have widely adopted the CIPU system that is integrated with our Apsara Operating System and supported by cloud-oriented CPU chips, which together deliver significant improvement in computing power and efficiency. The performance under this new architecture demonstrated more than 20% improvement compared to the industry average.

Serverless:

• Alibaba Cloud is making its key cloud products serverless to enable customers to concentrate on product development and deployment without worrying about managing servers and infrastructure. Continuing adoption of serverless technologies helps our customers increase business flexibility and cost effectiveness. Currently, Alibaba Cloud has more than 20 serverless products and continues to enable more product categories to become serverless.

Ecosystem:

• Alibaba DAMO Academy unveiled ModelScope, an open-source community dedicated for global researchers and developers to develop and share AI models in an easy and cost-effective way that can be deployed on Alibaba Cloud and other cloud platforms. ModelScope community provides over 300 ready-to-deploy AI models developed by Alibaba DAMO Academy that cover a wide range of fields from computer vision to natural language processing (NLP). Developers and researchers can test these AI models online for free and they can also download and customize these models to develop applications for their own use cases.

DingTalk

DingTalk, our digital collaboration workplace and application development platform, offers new ways of working, sharing and collaboration for modern enterprises and organizations. Through offering the low-code and no-code application development platform, the integration of DingTalk with Alibaba Cloud continues to further facilitate the digital transformation of our enterprise customers.

Digital Media and Entertainment

In the September quarter, Youku’s daily average paying subscriber base increased 8% year-over-year, primarily driven by continued contribution from our 88VIP membership program and quality content. Youku continues to improve operating efficiency through disciplined investment in content and production capability, which resulted in narrowing of losses year-over-year for six consecutive quarters.

Updates on ESG Initiatives

In August, we published our 2022 Environmental, Social and Governance Report. The report sets forth our strategy and initiatives in seven key areas: restoring our green planet, supporting our people, enabling a sustainable digital life, fueling small businesses, enhancing community inclusion and resilience, facilitating participatory philanthropy, and building trust.

Share Repurchases

During the quarter ended September 30, 2022, we repurchased approximately 24.3 million of ADSs (the equivalent of approximately 194.7 million of ordinary shares) for approximately US$2.1 billion under our share repurchase program. As of September 30, 2022, we had approximately 21.0 billion ordinary shares (the equivalent of approximately 2.6 billion ADSs) outstanding. As of November 16, 2022, we had repurchased approximately US$18 billion of our shares under our existing US$25 billion share repurchase program. In addition, our board of directors has approved to increase our existing share repurchase program by another US$15 billion and extend the program through the end of March 2025.

SEPTEMBER QUARTER SUMMARY FINANCIAL RESULTS
		Three months ended September 30,
		2021		2022
		RMB		RMB		US$		YoY % Change
		(in millions, except percentages and per share amounts)
Revenue		200,690		207,176		29,124		3%
Income from operations		15,006		25,137		3,534		68%(2)
Operating margin		7%		12%
Adjusted EBITDA(1)		34,840		43,311		6,089		24%(3)
Adjusted EBITDA margin(1)		17%		21%
Adjusted EBITA(1)		28,033		36,164		5,084		29%(3)
Adjusted EBITA margin(1)		14%		17%
Net income (loss)		3,377(4)		(22,467)(4)		(3,158)		N/A
Net income (loss) attributable to ordinary shareholders		5,367(4)		(20,561)(4)		(2,890)		N/A
Non-GAAP net income(1)		28,524		33,820		4,754		19%(4)
Diluted earnings (loss) per share(5)		0.25(4)		(0.97)(4)		(0.14)		N/A
Diluted earnings (loss) per ADS(5)		1.97(4)		(7.77)(4)		(1.09)		N/A
Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share(1) (5)		1.40		1.61		0.23		15%(4)(6)
Non-GAAP diluted earnings per ADS(1) (5)		11.20		12.92		1.82		15%(4)(6)

________________
(1)		See the sections entitled “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” and “Reconciliations of Non-GAAP Measures to the Nearest Comparable U.S. GAAP Measures” for more information about the non-GAAP measures referred to within this results announcement.
(2)		The year-over-year increase was mainly due to an increase in adjusted EBITA as well as a decrease in share-based compensation expense.
(3)		The year-over-year increases were primarily attributable to the narrowed adjusted EBITA loss of Local consumer services driven by Ele.me’s improved unit economics per order and an increase in China commerce adjusted EBITA primarily due to Taobao Deals’ and Taocaicai’s reduced losses as a result of improved operating efficiency, partly offset by a decrease in customer management revenue.
(4)		The year-over-year change was primarily attributable to an increase in net losses arising from the decrease in market prices of our equity investments in publicly-traded companies and a decrease in share of results of equity method investees, partly offset by an increase in adjusted EBITA. We excluded net gains or losses arising from the changes in fair value of our investments from our non-GAAP measurements.
(5)		Each ADS represents eight ordinary shares.
(6)		The year-over-year percentages as stated are calculated based on the exact amount and there may be minor differences from the year-over-year percentages calculated based on the RMB amounts after rounding.

SEPTEMBER QUARTER INFORMATION BY SEGMENTS

The table below sets forth selected financial information of our operating segments for the periods indicated:

		Three months ended September 30, 2022
		China commerce			International commerce			Local consumer services			Cainiao			Cloud			Digital media and entertainment			Innovation initiatives and others			Unallocated(1)			Consolidated
		RMB			RMB			RMB			RMB			RMB			RMB			RMB			RMB			RMB			US$
		(in millions, except percentages)
Revenue		135,431			15,747			13,073			13,367			20,757			8,392			409			—			207,176			29,124
YoY% change		(1	)%		4	%		21	%		36	%		4	%		4	%		(45	)%		N/A			3	%
Income (Loss) from operations		41,283			(1,652	)		(5,702	)		(661	)		(1,442	)		(697	)		(2,521	)		(3,471	)		25,137			3,534
Add: Share-based compensation expense		2,107			670			808			533			1,873			394			364			1,038			7,787			1,094
Add: Amortization of intangible assets		590			22			1,401			253			3			186			211			63			2,729			384
Add: Equity-settled donation expense		—			—			—			—			—			—			—			511			511			72
Adjusted EBITA		43,980			(960	)		(3,493	)		125			434			(117	)		(1,946	)		(1,859	)		36,164			5,084
Adjusted EBITA YoY% change(2)		6	%		61	%		47	%		N/A			10	%		87	%		(19	)%		(2	)%		29	%
Adjusted EBITA margin		32	%		(6	)%		(27	)%		1	%		2	%		(1	)%		(476	)%		N/A			17	%

		Three months ended September 30, 2021
		China commerce			International commerce			Local consumer services			Cainiao			Cloud			Digital media and entertainment			Innovation initiatives and others			Unallocated(1)			Consolidated
		RMB			RMB			RMB			RMB			RMB			RMB			RMB			RMB			RMB
		(in millions, except percentages)
Revenue		136,120			15,092			10,806			9,846			20,007			8,081			738			—			200,690
Income (Loss) from operations		37,676			(3,298	)		(9,133	)		(1,219	)		(1,985	)		(1,700	)		(2,313	)		(3,022	)		15,006
Add: Share-based compensation expense		2,857			793			1,089			630			2,377			566			664			1,145			10,121
Add: Amortization of intangible assets		821			24			1,509			274			4			203			14			57			2,906
Adjusted EBITA		41,354			(2,481	)		(6,535	)		(315	)		396			(931	)		(1,635	)		(1,820	)		28,033
Adjusted EBITA margin		30	%		(16	)%		(60	)%		(3	)%		2	%		(12	)%		(222	)%		N/A			14	%

		Six months ended September 30, 2022
		China commerce			International commerce			Local consumer services			Cainiao			Cloud			Digital media and entertainment			Innovation initiatives and others			Unallocated(1)			Consolidated
		RMB			RMB			RMB			RMB			RMB			RMB			RMB			RMB			RMB			US$
		(in millions, except percentages)
Revenue		277,366			31,198			23,705			25,509			38,442			15,623			888			—			412,731			58,021
YoY% change		(1	)%		3	%		13	%		19	%		7	%		(3	)%		(38	)%		N/A			2	%
Income (Loss) from operations		82,318			(3,794	)		(11,013	)		(1,472	)		(2,746	)		(1,912	)		(5,039	)		(6,262	)		50,080			7,040
Add: Share-based compensation expense		4,058			1,227			1,644			905			3,421			793			775			1,689			14,512			2,040
Add: Amortization of intangible assets		1,178			40			2,832			507			6			372			422			123			5,480			770
Add: Equity-settled donation expense		—			—			—			—			—			—			—			511			511			72
Adjusted EBITA		87,554			(2,527	)		(6,537	)		(60	)		681			(747	)		(3,842	)		(3,939	)		70,583			9,922
Adjusted EBITA YoY% change(2)		(5	)%		28	%		42	%		87	%		(7	)%		45	%		(25	)%		(14	)%		1	%
Adjusted EBITA margin		32	%		(8	)%		(28	)%		(0	)%		2	%		(5	)%		(433	)%		N/A			17	%

Contacts

Investor Relations Contact
Rob Lin

Investor Relations

Alibaba Group Holding Limited

investor@alibaba-inc.com

Media Contacts:
Cathy Yan

cathy.yan@alibaba-inc.com

Ivy Ke

ivy.ke@alibaba-inc.com

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