Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) yesterday said its net profit plunged 49 percent to US$463 million for the final quarter of its fiscal year ending March, hit by a share-based compensation expense.
The group also announced that its chief executive, Jonathan Lu (陸兆禧), is to be replaced by Daniel Zhang (張勇), the group’s chief operating officer, beginning on Sunday. Lu is to stay on the management board as vice chairman.
Zhang helped create its Nov. 11 “Singles’ Day” shopping promotion, which has become the company’s biggest sales day.
Photo: Bloomberg
“Daniel is a proven international business leader and innovator with a strong track record of delivering results,” chairman Jack Ma (馬雲) said in a statement. “Today’s announcement reflects our commitment to continuing to develop strong leadership from within.”
Zhang first joined Alibaba as chief financial officer of Taobao Marketplace (淘寶) in August 2007 and has been chief operating officer since September 2013.
Lu has been chief executive for the past two years, when he replaced Ma in the role, after joining Alibaba in 2000.
In the January-to-March quarter, the company’s revenues rose 45 percent from a year earlier to US$2.811 billion, with mobile revenue showing a threefold leap to US$846 million.
Transactions made on mobile devices continued to grow and accounted for more than half (51 percent) of the value of sales made on the company’s China retail platforms, up from 42 percent in the previous quarter.
Overall, the Chinese retail business contributed 75 percent of Alibaba’s total revenues.
However, the company’s market value has plunged more than US$70 billion since a peak in November last year amid concerns about slowing economic growth and criticism from the Chinese government about its business practices.
Shares of Alibaba closed at US$80 in New York trading on Wednesday. The stock has slumped 23 percent this year. Shares in the initial public offering in September last year sold at US$68 apiece, raising a record US$25 billion.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six