Our GAAP results and reconciliations of GAAP to non-GAAP measures can be found in our earnings press release. Our total revenue increased 15% year-over year, excluding Sun Art and InTime. Our continued investment in core businesses is yielding results, with China e-commerce CMR growing 10% and cloud intelligence revenue rising 34%. Sustained strong demand for AI and rising usage of public cloud drove Alibaba Cloud's 34% revenue growth this quarter, while revenue from external customers accelerated by 29%.

AI-related products continued to post triple-digit year-over-year growth for the ninth consecutive quarter. Second, customers are deepening and broadening their use of AI, which is significantly increasing demand for compute, storage, and other traditional cloud services. Together, these forces are accelerating revenue growth driven by external customer demand. The growth of quick commerce business contributed to rapid growth in Taobao App's monthly active consumers and supported CMR expansion.

Going forward, we will further enhance synergy between quick commerce and the broader Alibaba ecosystem, continue improving unit economics, and meet consumers' fast-growing demand for immediate access to diverse products and services. In October, AMAP Street Stars averaged more than 70 million daily active users, with average daily user reviews more than triple the amount of the same period last year, indicating strong future growth potential. We will advance both enterprise and consumer-focused AI, unlock deeper synergies across Alibaba's businesses, and use these engines to drive Alibaba's long-term growth and carry the company to the next level. Excluding revenue from Sun Art and InTime, revenue on a like-for-like basis would have grown by 15% year over year.

What went well
  • Total revenue grew 15% year-over-year on a like-for-like basis (RMB 247.8 billion), with China e-commerce CMR up 10% on take-rate improvement from Quanzhantui penetration and software service fees.
  • Cloud segment revenue accelerated to 34% growth and external-customer revenue to 29%, with AI-related product revenue posting triple-digit growth for the 9th consecutive quarter and exceeding 20% of external revenue.
  • Quick commerce revenue grew 60% with meaningful unit-economics improvement; per-order UE loss was cut roughly 50% since November versus July-August, non-beverage orders exceeded 75%, and AOV rose double digits.
  • AIDC turned to an adjusted EBITDA profit of RMB 162 million as revenue grew 10%, driven by logistics optimization and investment efficiency.
  • The newly launched Qwen app surpassed 10 million new downloads in its first week of public beta, and Alibaba Cloud remained the clear China AI cloud leader with share larger than the combined 2nd-4th providers.
  • Amap daily active users hit a historical high of 360 million on October 1, with Amap Street Stars averaging over 70 million DAU in October.
What went wrong
  • Total adjusted EBITDA decreased 78%, primarily due to strategic investment in the quick commerce business.
  • GAAP net income fell 53% to RMB 20.6 billion, mainly from lower income from operations.
  • Free cash flow was an outflow of RMB 21.8 billion, reflecting heavy quick commerce and AI+cloud infrastructure investment.
  • Operating cash flow fell RMB 21.3 billion year-over-year to RMB 10.1 billion on increased quick commerce investment.
  • All Other segment revenue decreased 25% (mainly Sun Art/Intime disposals) with an adjusted EBITDA loss of RMB 3.4 billion; China E-commerce Group EBITDA of RMB 10.5 billion reflected heavy quick commerce drag.

Guidance Changes

MetricPeriodCurrent guidance
Quick commerce investment intensityDecember quarter (following)significant sizing down expected (decrease)
Quick commerce GMVWithin three yearstarget CNY 1 trillion (increase)
CMR growthDecember quarter (following)expected to slow on base effect of payment-processing fee started September last year (decrease)
Three-year AI + cloud CapExMulti-yearmay be on the small side; would not rule out scaling up (increase)
AIDC adjusted EBITDAComing quartersmay fluctuate quarter-over-quarter on tactical investments in select markets

Performance Breakdown

MetricYoYNote
Total revenue +15% on a like-for-like basis (RMB 247.8 billion) Double-digit growth in China e-commerce and cloud; like-for-like excludes Sun Art and Intime.
China E-commerce Group revenue +16% (RMB 132.6 billion) CMR up 10% on take-rate improvement (Quanzhantui penetration, software service fees); quick commerce revenue up 60%.
Cloud segment revenue +34% (external customers +29%) Public cloud growth and increasing adoption of AI-related products (triple-digit growth, 9th consecutive quarter).
AIDC revenue +10% Logistics optimization and efficiency drove a swing to an adjusted EBITDA profit of RMB 162 million.
Quick commerce revenue +60% Executed plan to grow scale, improve user experience, and narrow UE loss.
Total adjusted EBITDA -78% Strategic investment in quick commerce to grow user base and transaction volume.
GAAP net income -53% (RMB 20.6 billion) Decrease in income from operations.
Cloud adjusted EBITDA margin relatively stable at 9%

Earnings Call Themes & Trends

TopicPrevious mentionCurrent periodTrend
Cloud / AI demand8th consecutive triple-digit AI quarter (prior)9th consecutive quarter; external growth accelerated to 29%; unable to keep pace with demandAccelerating
Full-stack AI + Qwen modelsQwen3 Max ranks among global leaders in coding/agentic benchmarks; NBA, Marriott, UnionPay, Bosch partnershipsUp
Consumer AI (Qwen app)not launchedlaunched; 10 million downloads in first beta week; to integrate e-commerce, maps, local servicesUp
Quick commerce unit economicslarge UE loss during scale-upper-order UE loss cut ~50% since November; AOV up double digitsImproving
CapExCNY 380 billion three-year plan (RMB 120 billion spent)may be on the small side; open to scaling upUp
Consumption synergyquick commerce drove Taobao MAC growth; ~3,500 Tmall brands onboarded offline stores; Amap DAU record 360 millionUp

Q&A Summary

Morgan Stanley asked about the cloud growth outlook, whether acceleration continues, and the key drivers of external revenue growth absent a large domestic AI company like in the U.S.
Eddie Wu said customer AI demand remains very strong and Alibaba cannot keep pace deploying new servers. Demand spans all enterprise operations (product development, manufacturing, customer support) as AI adoption deepens, with associated training and inference driving compute usage. He expressed strong conviction in continued AI demand growth from real customers in real-world use cases.
UBS asked for key quick commerce progress and synergy with core e-commerce, plus the outlook for December-quarter CMR and EBITDA.
Management said per-order UE loss was cut ~50% since November versus July-August while GMV share held and trended up, with non-beverage orders over 75% and Freshippo/Tmall supermarket QC orders up 30% from August. Quick commerce drives CMR via engagement; the September quarter was likely the peak investment quarter, with significant sizing down next quarter. CMR growth may slow on the payment-processing-fee base effect, targeting CNY 1 trillion GMV within three years.
JP Morgan asked how cost savings from quick commerce efficiency will be allocated across consumers, merchants, and the platform, and how much room remains for UE improvement.
Jiang Fan said efforts focus on enhancing user experience and raising AOV (revenue is proportional to order value) plus improving fulfillment efficiency with scale. With mostly new consumers acquired recently, converting them to sticky, higher-frequency users and refining subsidies leaves considerable UE upside; the QC channel already exceeds 100 million daily users, but the approach will be adjusted dynamically given intense competition.
Goldman Sachs asked about CapEx over the next three years relative to the RMB 380 billion figure (with ~RMB 120 billion already spent) and the correlation between CapEx and incremental revenue.
Eddie Wu said the pace of adding servers is insufficient to keep up with customer orders, so the RMB 380 billion figure might be on the small side and further scaling is not ruled out, subject to supply chains. He declined to give a fixed CapEx-to-revenue ratio because AI is early-stage and infrastructure serves varied uses (training rental, inference rental, internal Bailian and apps) with differing revenues and margins.
Nomura asked, beyond quick commerce, which other consumption subsectors Alibaba sees as good opportunities to scale investment.
Jiang Fan said Alibaba has invested for years across many categories, and beyond quick commerce it has Freshippo, offline O2O, Fliggy, Amap, and local services. The priority now is to integrate and connect these businesses to drive more synergies and further increase market share in the broader consumption market.

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Reported 2025-11-25 · figures from the Alibaba Group Holding Ltd Q2 2026 earnings call.

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