Alibaba Says China’s Slowdown Isn’t Hurting It All That Much

Alibaba Group VC Joseph Tsai says the firm is unperturbed by China’s economic slowdown. Quoted in a Bloomberg report, Tsai said Alibaba is “delinked” from a Chinese economy in which more and more business are moving online because “we’re in e-commerce and we’re digitising the whole sector”.

He added that Alibaba’s growth is expected to continue to outpace the economy in general, as digital commerce grows at faster rates compared with more traditional retail business.

The comments were made at the Goldman Sachs Group technology conference in San Francisco.

According to the Bloomberg article, China’s economy expanded 6.4 per cent in the final three months of last year compared with a year earlier. Alibaba’s takings during the period rose 41 per cent to RMB117.3 billion (US$17.3 billion), representing its slowest pace of growth in more than two years. Its continued positive performance is buoyed by excursions into new business territories such as cloud services and entertainment, while assisting physical retailers with modernisation drives.

According to the Alibaba Group VC, the situation is comparable to Amazon’s in terms of its consistent double-digit sales growth in the face of slowing economic growth within the US.