Josh Horwitz and Nivedita Balu

(Reuters: Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. reported Thursday that it experienced its lowest quarterly revenue growth in a quarter since 2014. This was due to weak gains in core businesses and increased competition.

As consumers reduce discretionary spending, the slowing Chinese economy also has a detrimental effect on the company.

Alibaba reported that group revenue increased by 10% to 242.6 billion Yuan ($38.37 Billion) in October and December 2021, marking the first quarterly decline below 20%.

Based on Refinitiv data, analysts expected an average of 246.37 billion Yuan in revenue.

Year-over-year, customer management revenue fell by 1%. This is a critical metric that tracks how much merchants spend on promotions and ads on Alibaba’s websites.

It is also the first time the revenue of the segment (41% of Alibaba total revenue) has declined since the company’s IPO.

The company saw a 8.5% increase in gross merchandise value during China’s Singles Day promotion event, which was a new record.

Alibaba’s stock was down by about 3% before the bell rang in New York. The results showed that they had fallen 5%, reflecting global share losses following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Alibaba also faces increased pressure from ByteDance owned Douyin (owned by Alibaba) and Kuaishou (owned ByteDance), which are capitalizing on the growing trend of livestreaming online e-commerce.

Alibaba changed the way it reported financial information for some business segments during its third quarter in order to show new growth areas.

The international commerce volume reached 16.45 Billion Yuan. This 18% increase is impressive. Local services for consumers, including the delivery of food, generated 12.14 Billion Yuan in 2018, up 27% compared to a previous year.

Alibaba’s Fintech Affiliate Ant Group reported a profit amounting to 17.6 Billion Yuan in the third quarter ending September. This is compared to 15 billion yuan one year ago.

Alibaba reported Ant quarter profit in arrears.

China has imposed sweeping changes on Ant, which led to its collapse in the late 2020 initial public offering of $37 billion.

Alibaba bought approximately 10 million American Depositary Shares, or ADSs, in October and December quarters for US$1.4 billion.

As part of the US$15 billion Share Repurchase Program, approximately $7.7B worth of shares was purchased by the company in the nine months ended December.

The net income attributable shareholders dropped to 20.43billion yuan from 79.43billion yuan one year ago.

Alibaba’s adjusted earnings per ADS were 16.87 Yuan, which is higher than the 16.18 Yuan expected.

Alibaba was once Asia’s most listed company. However, it has lost the crown to Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC. It even fell behind local rivals Tencent Moutai.

Due to Beijing’s crackdown in certain industries, the company’s U.S. listed shares lost about half of their value over the last 12 months.

($1 = 6.3226 renminbi)