Alibaba chairman Joe Tsai voices confidence in Chinese consumer spending as e-commerce, cloud business units get back on growth track
- Sales of some discretionary items like apparel and electronics were growing, Tsai said on a conference call with analysts after Alibaba released its earnings
- Taobao and Tmall Group achieved double-digit year-on-year growth in GMV in the March quarter, according to Alibaba
Confidence among Chinese consumers was showing “early signs of growth”, according to Alibaba Group Holding co-founder and chairman Joe Tsai, as the e-commerce giant expects its core businesses to be back on the growth path in the current financial year.
“We’ve all seen some of the growth in the services sector during the May 1 holidays. And within our platform, [sales of] some discretionary items like apparel and electronics are also actually growing,” Tsai said on a conference call with analysts on Tuesday after Alibaba released its earnings for the March quarter and the financial year ended in March.
“The growth is pretty good. Consumers are starting to reflect that willingness to spend,” Tsai said.
“So we’re seeing some positive signals, but it is probably still too early to tell because the macro environment is broadly affected by the property sector downturn,” he added.
Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
Eddie Wu Yongming, who took over as chief executive of the domestic e-commerce unit last December, expects Taobao and Tmall Group’s general merchandise value (GMV) will “gradually return to healthy growth” in the financial year.
