While many Chinese companies have faced severe challenges and losses caused by the coronavirus outbreak, Alibaba Group is emerging as one of the country’s biggest corporate winners of the COVID-19 crisis. The multinational tech giant gained the opportunity to expand its business during the first half of 2020, as demand for its services and online marketplace traffic surged amid the coronavirus lockdown.
According to data presented by StockApps, the Alibaba Group’s revenue jumped to $22.7bn in the second quarter of 2020, still four times less than its leading competitor Amazon.
Alibaba Quarterly Revenue Jumped 34% YoY, Amazon’s 40%
Alibaba Group emerged as China’s leading eCommerce company after the 2003 SARS outbreak. Since then, it has become a significant hirer and a lender, providing more than 100,000 jobs and offering billions of dollars in loans to SMEs.
One of the group’s most profitable marketplaces is Taobao, responsible for more than 80% of its sales. Unlike Amazon, Alibaba isn’t involved in direct sales and doesn’t own warehouses; it simply helps branded manufacturers and small businesses to reach consumers. Although both tech giants have established a strong presence in their domestic markets, there is intense competition between them in expanding to the new markets.
Alibaba’s revenue amounted to $11.9bn in the second quarter of 2018, while its US competitor reported $52.8bn, four times more than that. During the next twelve months, Alibaba`s revenues surged by 41% to almost $17bn in the second quarter of 2020. Amazon’s revenue rose by nearly 20% to $63.4bn in the same quarter. After a strong performance in the third and fourth quarter of 2019, the revenue of both companies slightly dropped in the first quarter of 2020. However, the second quarter of the year delivered the highest results, so far.
Alibaba Group’s revenue jumped to $22.7bn; an 34% increased year-over-year. The company’s Q2 Results also revealed the number of their annual active consumers on the China retail marketplaces surged by 16 million in three months, reaching a total of 742 million. Mobile MAUs on China retail marketplaces jumped to 874 million in June, an increase of 28 million compared to the first quarter. Adjusted EBITDA grew by 30% in a year to $7.2bn, while quarterly net income rose to more than $6.5bn.
In August, Amazon also announced its excellent second-quarter results, which revealed double-digit revenue growth year-over-year driven by a surge in sales amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The US tech giant’s revenue spiked 40% year-over-year to $88.9bn, up from $81.5bn expected. Net income surged by 100% to $5.2 bn, while earnings per share hit $10.30, a significant increase compared to $5.22 in the second quarter of 2019. The company reported its North American sales rose by 43% to $55.4bn, while international sales grew 38% to $22.7bn.
Combined Market Cap of Two Tech Giants Soared by 81% YoY
Besides their revenues and profits booming amid the coronavirus outbreak, both Alibaba Group and Amazon witnessed significant growth in their market capitalization since the beginning of the year.
In December 2019, the market cap of the Chinese tech giant amounted to $570.9bn, revealed the Yahoo Finance data. After a 10% drop in March, this figure rose to $581.2bn in June. Statistics show the Alibaba Group’s market cap continued growing in the third quarter, rising by $181.2bn after fantastic Q2 2020 results. In September, it surged to $762.4bn, a 75% jump year-over-year.
In 2020, Amazon officially became the fourth tech company to join the $1 trillion club, besides Apple, Microsoft, and Alphabet. Statistics show the company’s market cap amounted to $920.2bn in December last year. By the end of the first half of 2020, it rose to $1.38trn and continued growing ever since. Statistics show the combined value of Amazon’s stocks surged by $210bn after the US tech giant announced its last quarterly results and hit $1.59trn in September, an 80% increase year-over-year.
The combined market capitalization of the two competitors hit $2.35trn this month, almost 58% jump since the beginning of the year.
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