Alibaba on track to recovery

E-COMMERCE giant Alibaba is one of the world's fastest growing technology companies. It dominates China's e-commerce industry with 59 per cent of market share and total revenue of RMB376.8 billion (S$75.6 billion) in 2019 with its core retail segment as the largest revenue contributor.

Its cloud computing business, which is now the largest in Asia, has gained good momentum recently and has grown to be the second largest revenue source for Alibaba. In China alone, Alibaba's 46 per cent market share in the cloud business leads the market by a wide margin, with Tencent Cloud trailing at 18 per cent.

The Covid-19 global lockdown could function as a catalyst not just for the e-commerce industry but also for the growth of China's already accelerating cloud computing. This helps to support remote interaction and home offices, paving a positive outlook for Alibaba despite a lower earning-per-share forecast for the upcoming Q1 report card.