Today's document will talk about Alibaba, which has attracted much attention, and see what Alibaba's businesses are, what industries it involves, what its profit model is, what are the sources of revenue, and what is its future business strategy.

1. Alibaba's business segments

Alibaba is the largest e-commerce platform in China and one of the "BAT" Chinese Internet giants.

In the 2017 fiscal year (March 2016~March 2017), its revenue has reached 158.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 57%, and a five-year compound growth rate of 51%.

Since the 2017 fiscal year, Alibaba has divided its business into four major segments:

(1) core e-commerce business (consisting of domestic and overseas retail and wholesale e-commerce platforms and marketing platforms);

(2) cloud computing business (Alibaba Cloud);

(3) digital media and entertainment business (Youku Tudou, UC Webpage, etc.);

(4) innovative business and others (including YunOS, AutoNavi Maps, DingTalk, etc.).

The core e-commerce business is still Alibaba’s main source of revenue, and other businesses have great growth potential.

The e-commerce segment’s revenue in fiscal 2017 was RMB 133.9 billion, accounting for 85% of total revenue (the proportion in fiscal 2015 and 2016 was above 90%). Other business segments are also in a period of rapid growth. In fiscal 2017, the cloud computing business grew by 121% to RMB 6.7 billion, the digital media and entertainment business revenue grew by 271% to RMB 14.7 billion, and the innovative and other business revenue grew by 65% ​​to RMB 3 billion. The three potential businesses are important parts of Alibaba's ecosystem. They can not only serve Alibaba's core e-commerce business, but are also expected to become new engines for Alibaba's future revenue growth.