Hong Kong, March 18, 2008 – Alibaba.com Limited (HKSE:1688), the world's leading B2B e-commerce company, today announced its financial results for the year ended December 31, 2007.

Highlights of Full Year 2007

    * Total revenue increased by 58.6% to RMB2,162.8 million in 2007 from RMB1,363.9 million in 2006.
    * Gross profit increased by 67.2% to RMB1,882.6 million in 2007 from RMB1,126.2 million in 2006.
    * Operating profit increased by 199.6% to RMB804.3 million in 2007 from RMB268.5 million in 2006.
    * Operating profit margin increased to 37.2% in 2007 from 19.7% in 2006.
    * Net income (Profit attributable to equity owners – GAAP) in 2007 increased by 340.0% to RMB967.8 million from RMB219.9 million in 2006.
    * Earnings per share, basic and diluted ("EPS") for 2007 was 20.41 Hong Kong cents, representing an increase of 357.6% from 4.46 Hong Kong cents in 2006.

    * Total number of registered users of our combined marketplaces grew by 39.6% to 27.6 million as of December 31, 2007 from 19.8 million as of December 31, 2006. As of December 31, 2007, we had 4.4 million registered users on our international marketplace and 23.2 million registered users on our China marketplace.
    * Total number of storefronts on our marketplaces grew by 42.7% to 3.0 million in 2007 from 2.1 million in 2006. As of December 31, 2007, we had 697,563 storefronts on our international marketplace and 2,259,283 storefronts on our China marketplace.
    * The number of paying members of our combined marketplaces grew by 39.5% to over 305,000 as of December 31, 2007.
    * Commenting on the year's performance, David Wei, CEO of Alibaba.com, said, "We achieved outstanding financial results in 2007. Our revenue growth was driven by a combination of a strong increase in paying members and further improvement in average spending per paying member. We have increased geographic coverage and developed more value-added services to offer our customers. In addition, we have placed greater emphasis on the enhancement of customer service. In 2008, we plan to continue to invest in global expansion, new product development, customer support services and, most importantly, in our people, to achieve strong and sustainable long-term growth of our business."
    * Jack Ma, Chairman of Alibaba.com, said, "We aim to become a provider of e-commerce infrastructure for SMEs in China and Asia, and to create an Alibaba ecosystem for e-commerce. Our goal is to create long-term value for our customers, our team and our shareholders. I believe 2008 will be even more exciting for all of us."

2007 Results

Alibaba.com reported total revenue of RMB2,162.8 million for 2007, representing a 58.6% increase from 2006. The growth was driven mainly by increases in the number of paying members of our combined marketplaces as well as by average spending per paying member.

Alibaba.com had 305,545 paying members at the end of 2007, representing a 39.5% increase from end of 2006.

Download Announcement of annual results for the year ended 31 December, 2007

PDF format, 165KB, 33Pages.

OUTLOOK

Our 2008 strategy keywords are: Global, E-commerce Infrastructure and Alibaba Ecosystem.

Our international marketplace is truly global and we plan to further improve our reach in developed countries such as Japan and emerging markets like India in 2008. Broadening our service geographically will further diversify our SME portfolio across different countries and will create new monetization opportunities. Economic fluctuations notwithstanding, SMEs will continue to benefit from the rise of dispersed manufacturing which generates increasing demand for cross-border business-to-business interactions, and e-commerce can help them leverage on this.

Our China marketplace will continue to benefit from increasing domestic demand. To benefit from this growth, we aim to be the destination place for all SMEs to start their Internet presence and to become the premier e-commerce infrastructure for SMEs.

We will continue to work closely with our sister companies, such as Alisoft, Alipay and Taobao, to provide more packaged services for SMEs and provide more cross-selling opportunities. The Alibaba ecosystem is more than achieving synergy between our sister companies. We will continue to open our platform to other service providers to leverage on our strong marketplace and to offer other SME applications.

We remain positive about the long-term growth of our business. We plan to invest part of our profits and our capital into our geographic expansion, our development of new applications, our customer services and, most importantly, our people.

Download Alibaba.com 2007 Results Presentation

PDF format, 1.58MB, 32Pages.

This presentation may contain forward-looking statements that are, by their nature, based on certain assumptions and subject to significant risks and uncertainties. These statements relate to events that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors (including those described under the heading ‘Risks’ in the Company’s prospectus dated October 23, 2007 which is available at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange’s website at www.hkex.com.hk), which may cause the Company’s actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements.

These forward-looking statements reflect the Company’s current views with respect to future events and are not a guarantee of future performance, and the information in this presentation should be considered in the context of the circumstances prevailing at the time of its presentation.

Unless otherwise stated, and, except as required by the Hong Kong Listing Rules and applicable law, the Company does not intend, and undertakes no duty, to update any such forward-looking statement or information to reflect any events, circumstances or developments which may occur after the date of this presentation.

About Alibaba.com:

Alibaba.com Corp. is an online marketplace for international and domestic China trade. The Company provides a platform for connecting small and medium-sized buyers and suppliers from China and around the world. Its international marketplace (www.alibaba.com) focuses on global importers and exporters and its China marketplace (www.alibaba.com.cn) focuses on suppliers and buyers trading domestically in China.

Together the Company’s marketplaces form a community of more than 24 million members from over 200 countries and regions, as of June 30, 2007. It has field sales and marketing offices in more than 30 cities in China, Hong Kong, Switzerland and the United States.

Comments (1)

Show/Hide comments

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Add Comment