Alibaba's Maiden Quarterly Results Promise Over $1bn Profits

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba will report quarterly earnings on 4 November for the first time since its historic $25bn New York floatation.

Alibaba will hold a conference call to discuss the financial results at 0730 US Eastern Time (2030 Hong Kong Time) the same day.

A live webcast of the earnings conference call can be accessed through the website: https://www.alibabagroup.com/en/ir/earnings.

Expectations

Alibaba, which handles more e-commerce than Amazon.com and eBay combined, is expected to post a revenue of about $2.7bn (£1.7bn, €2.2bn) for the quarter-ended September, up some 52% from a previously reported $1.78bn a year ago.

Jack Ma's firm is expected to report a net profit of about $1.17bn for the September quarter, according to a Thomson Reuters SmartEstimate poll of 21 analysts.

Alibaba does not have much of a presence among US retail customers, but is a household name in China.

Jefferies analyst Cynthia Meng said in a note to clients: "We estimate well over half of the Chinese population will be shopping on Alibaba's platforms in 10 years."

Alibaba's shares have remained 45% above their debut price. Valued at $247bn, the firm trails only Google in size. The search giant is valued at $382bn.

Mobile Payments

Ma said last week he was open to working with technology major Apple on mobile payments.

Alibaba affiliate Alipay is China's largest payments service, while Apple has just rolled out its own version of a mobile wallet, allowing iPhone 6 users to make payments at retailers with their smartphones.

Alibaba's Alipay system is an escrow-based payment method in which consumers would not have to release funds until they have received and inspected the package. That have gone a long way towards alleviating buyers' concerns about purchasing online.

Alibaba's total revenue in the 2014 financial year was $8.5bn, a huge leap from its 2011 revenue, which stood at $1.95bn.