Alibaba’s overseas e-commerce businesses, including Lazada and AliExpress, saw strong growth in the second quarter of 2023, signaling success in the company’s global expansion amid its ongoing structural reorganization.
The financial report revealed Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group (AIDC), the subsidiary unit that oversees Alibaba’s overseas online marketplaces, brought in 3.05 billion USD in revenue in the second quarter, a year-on-year increase of 41%. AIDC’s retail business achieved a 60% year-on-year revenue growth at 2.35 billion USD.
Alibaba’s impressive overseas growth so far this year is owed in large part to the introduction of the “Choice” model on AliExpress, an Amazon-style retailer for low-price miscellaneous goods. AliExpress Choice, which launched in March this year, offers users a curated selection of the best value products on the platform with free shipping in selected countries and a new monthly shopping event “Choice Day”. The new model was especially popular in South Korea, where AliExpress surpassed the local platform Coupang to become the country’s most downloaded shopping app in March.
Alibaba’s newer ventures, like Miravia which launched in the Spanish market at the end of 2022, are also performing well. Miravia climbed to the top spot among shopping apps on Spain’s App Store, with AliExpress clinching third most downloaded app.
Overall, Alibaba saw its strongest quarterly revenue growth in 2 years, posting revenue of 32.29 billion USD, which beat analysts’ estimates and exceeded the equivalent period last year by 14%. This comes amid concerning data for China’s economy, with the consumer price index continuing to slide downwards in July amid weak demand.
Alibaba Group CEO and Chairman Daniel Zhang, who will be stepping down in September, was optimistic about the company’s financial results and their relationship to the overall economic situation:
“The latest macro data indicates some uncertainties in the pace of post-COVID recovery, but as economic and consumer activities continue to resume, our businesses demonstrated encouraging trends.”
