Alibaba Executive Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai

Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd. released their first earnings report yesterday November 4, since listing as a public company in September. Alibaba’s earnings dropped due to stock awards that were handed out to employees and executives prior to their $25 billion IPO. Earnings for the quarter, ending September, dropped 39% from the same period in 2013, to $494 million.

These one-time stock awards were used as an attempt to keep staff and reward good performance. Apart from this expense, Alibaba have reported strong growth in operations, with revenue for the quarter rising to $2.74 billion, an increase of 54%.

With the Chinese company’s shares increasing 56% from their IPO price, they are now worth more than Wal-Mart Stores Inc., and are valued at $257 billion. Wal-Mart who has 40 times the quarterly sales compared to Alibaba is valued at $248 billion.

According to The Wall Street Journal Alibaba Executive Vice Chairman, Joseph Tsai stated that Alibaba had added 29 million mobile users in the past quarter.

Alibaba’s annual active buyers have increased from 279 million a year ago, to 307 million as of September.

Alibaba has seen an increase in their e-commerce transactions coming through smartphones and tablet computers. With an increase of 15%, overall transactions on Taobao and Tmall through mobile are up to 36%. Monthly active users on Alibaba’s mobile commerce apps have increased to 217 million, up from 188 million.

Alibaba, which operates the Taobao and Tmall marketplaces, accounts for 80% of China’s online transactions. In the last quarter, business for merchants on Taobao and Tmall increased 49% to $90.5 billion, from the previous year. Two thirds was accounted by Taobao, which hosts 7 million sellers, while Tmall which hosts larger, more luxury brands like Nike Inc. and Apple Inc. made up the rest.

As China’s e-commerce market continues to expand into smaller cities and rural areas, investors will be counting on strong growth from Alibaba in the coming months and years. With the launch of AliExpress, a market for customers outside of China, in 2010 it has already become the most popular shopping site in Russia and Brazil. Alibaba will also continue to look for new deals in order to help it expand into other parts of the world, like Africa, Europe and the U.S.

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