The second quarter report comes in bearing great news just one month before CEO Jack Ma steps down.
Alibaba just reported a 42% increase in sales, as well as profits which have doubled since the last quarter. Despite a now-saturated eCommerce market and a global economy weakened by the US-China trade war, Alibaba has continued to grow and thrive. The company reported on Thursday that it now plans to repurchase up to $6 billion in the company’s stock over the next two years. The Alibaba ticker was up 3% to $166.97 on Thursday.
Amid all the good news, co-founder and long-time CEO Jack Ma is set to depart from the company next month. Ma suggested that his successor, Daniel Zhang, should maintain a corporate strategy that focuses on increasing sales in China’s rural areas. He also suggested that the company should invest in new businesses, such as cloud computing. Ma made his fortune by taking full advantage of the immense power of technological innovations early on. At the moment, cloud computing is a young industry holding immense potential. Amazon’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) has been expanding quickly recently, and has secured massive projects connecting the operations of companies on a single cloud.
Alibaba is China’s most significant online retailer, taking about two-thirds of the market share. After securing the lion’s share of the business in China’s more affluent first-tier cities, the company has shifted its focus to China’s less developed areas.
