Alibaba.com, the massive B2B e-commerce company based in China, this morning published (PDF) its results for the third quarter of the year. The company reported a 11.9 percent increase (to $64 million) in its Q3 net profit, with revenues rising 10.6 percent to $250 million, year-over-year.
This was below Wall Street expectations; Alibaba blamed a weak U.S. economy, a decline in manufacturing, the eurozone debt crisis and on-going platform enhancement activities for missing analysts’ forecasts.
During Q3 2011, Alibaba.com attracted roughly 4 million new users for a total of 72.8 million registered users, and now hosts more than 360,000 new storefronts for a total of 9.6 million.
The number of paying members declined in the third quarter by 27,725, to reach a total of 787,653, for which Alibaba blames the execution of its long-term ‘enhancement’ plans.
Operating expenses rose a considerable 13 percent.
The Alibaba Group, which Yahoo has a 40 percent stake in, has reportedly been in talks with PE firms about making a bid for Yahoo. Microsoft has also signed a non-disclosure agreement with Yahoo to take a good look at its books.