Alibaba.com reports a 39% revenue increase

The world's leading business-to-business e-commerce company Alibaba.com announced its financial results for the year ended December 31, 2008.

The total revenue increased 39% to RMB3.0 billion in 2008, as compared to 2007. Total income of the China ecommerce company stood for 36% in 2008, compared to 28% in 2007 owing to the strong execution team and relatively more robust China economy.

The number of registered users and online storefronts on Alibaba.com's marketplaces increased by 10.5 million and 1.7 million, respectively, as the buyers and merchants around the world saw in e-commerce the benefits of reducing costs and improving efficiency, especially during the global economic recession. As of December 31, 2008, the total number of storefronts on the marketplaces had grown to 4.6 million, an increase of 56% compared to 2007. Of this total, it had been 970,000 storefronts on the international marketplace and 3.6 million storefronts on the China marketplace. 38.1 million users were registered, as of December 31, 2008, an increase of 38% year-on-year. It was 7.9 million registered users on the international marketplace and 30.2 million registered users on the China marketplace. In the fourth quarter of 2008, one million registered users were added to the international marketplace and 1.4 million registered users to the China marketplace.

Over 126,000 paying members were added to the marketplaces in 2008, which surpassed the growth from the previous year. The record increase of 12,192 Gold Supplier members was seen in the fourth quarter driven by the November 2008 presentation of the Gold Supplier Starter Pack and an upgrade of the existing Gold Supplier service. Alibaba.com had 432,031 paying members as of December 31, 2008, representing a 41% year-on-year increase.