{"id":8828,"date":"2011-05-13T02:05:27","date_gmt":"2011-05-13T02:05:27","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-13T02:05:27","modified_gmt":"2011-05-13T02:05:27","slug":"Alibaba-com-s-Hazy-Revenue-Outlook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=8828","title":{"rendered":"Alibaba.com\u2019s Hazy Revenue Outlook"},"content":{"rendered":"

The new chief executive of Alibaba.com held his first conference call with reporters on Thursday \u2013 and left listeners scratching their heads when his remarks about the company\u2019s revenue forecast didn\u2019t seem to add up. Jonathan Lu took his post at Alibaba.com, which operates websites that connect buyers and suppliers, after former CEO David Wei resigned following a fraud scandal in February. Mr. Lu was thus handed the weighty task of rebuilding the company\u2019s credibility and category_iding it through an in-progress business transition, entailing a new focus on boosting revenue per user rather than raising the raw user numbers that have fueled growth in recent years.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr. Lu, who is also CEO of Alibaba.com\u2019s sister company Taobao, an online shopping website, made a quiet debut as Mr. Wei\u2019s replacement. Having just taken the job, he didn\u2019t speak to reporters in March after Alibaba.com announced a set of financial results. He participated in a call with analysts that reporters were allowed to listen in on, but left most of the talking to Chief Financial Officer Maggie Wu. Alibaba.com declined to make him available for interviews. Two months later, during Thursday\u2019s conference call on the company\u2019s first-quarter financial results, Mr. Lu seemed more comfortable speaking about the company. But his remarks on revenue growth quickly became a source of confusion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe forecast that basically, it\u2019s possible the growth rate of 2011 revenue\u2014overall revenue, may be about the same as 2010, flat,\u201d he said early in the call, speaking in Chinese. He proceeded to emphasize he meant \u201crevenue\u201d and not \u201crevenue growth\u201d would be flat. The comment came as something of shock given the company\u2019s recent results. Alibaba.com notched revenue growth of 29% in 2009 and 43% in 2010. But in response to a later question, Mr. Lu said revenue growth for the rest of the year would be \u201cabout the same\u201d as the 25.5% growth Alibaba.com logged in the first quarter \u2013 hardly flat growth even by China\u2019s high-octane standards.<\/strong><\/p>\n

SOURCE<\/a>
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