Alibaba says annual net profit up 47% in 2017-18

Chinese e-commerce giant has registered a 47 percent leap in net profit for the fiscal year 2017/2018, helped by a rise in smartphone and tablet transactions on its shopping platform.

Profit climbed to 63.985 billion yuan ($10.2 billion), boosted by a 60 percent rise in revenue from its core business, the online retailer said.

The New York-listed firm added 98 million consumers over the year ended March 31 for a total of 552 million using its e-commerce marketplaces.

Overall revenue climbed 58 percent year-on-year to 250.27 billion yuan, with revenue from cloud computing up 101 percent and digital media and entertainment up 33 percent.

For the fourth quarter, the company saw revenue soar a better than expected 61 percent year-on-year to 62 billion yuan.

Group CEO Daniel Zhang in a statement said, "Alibaba Group had an excellent quarter and fiscal year, driven by robust growth in our core commerce business and investments we have made over the past several years in longer-term growth initiatives.”

Chief financial officer Maggie Wu said they forecast similar results in the year ahead.

"Looking ahead to fiscal 2019, we expect overall revenue growth above 60 percent, reflecting our confidence in our core business as well as positive momentum in new businesses," she said.

Alibaba, which has made billionaire founder Jack Ma one of China's richest men and a global e-commerce icon, has been on a roll, regularly beating revenue estimates.