(Yicai Global) Feb. 25 -- Alibaba Group Holding’s Hong Kong-listed shares inched up despite the Chinese e-commerce giant reporting a plunge in profit and the slowest increase in quarterly revenue since going pubic in 2014.

Alibaba [HKG: 9988] closed 0.4 percent higher today at HKD105.30 (USD13.49), falling back from an earlier gain of as much as 3 percent. In New York yesterday, the firm’s stock [NYSE: BABA] slid 0.7 percent after its earnings report was released to USD108.93.

Net profit sank 75 percent to CNY19.2 billion (USD3.04 billion) in the three months ended Dec. 31 due to high investment and increased outlays on user growth and support to merchants, Hangzhou-based Alibaba said. Revenue rose only 10 percent to CNY242.6 billion (USD38.4 billion). That was the slowest sales growth since its initial public offering in 2014.

China commerce, which includes e-commerce platforms Taobao and Taobao Deal, business-to-business website 1688.Com, and community grocery platform Taocaicai, saw revenue grow 7 percent to CNY172.2 billion (USD27 billion) from a year ago. With 882 million active consumers, the business contributed 71 percent of Alibaba’s overall revenue.

The company began to report separate earnings for each business segment with the fiscal third quarter just reported.

Income from the firm’s international commerce segment, which includes Aliexpress, Southeast Asian and Turkish e-commerce platforms Lazada and Trendyol, and others, rose 18 percent to CNY16.4 billion. Orders with Lazada and Trendyol jumped 52 percent and 49 percent, respectively, from a year earlier.

The local consumer service segment, which includes food delivery giant Ele.me, digital map and navigation service provider Amap, and tourism platform Fliggy, increased sales 27 percent to CNY12.1 billion, buoyed by a 22 percent jump in orders and more efficient use of subsidies.

Revenue from Alibaba’s logistics arm Cainiao after inter-segment elimination rose 15 percent to CNY13.1 billion, driven by greater penetration of its cross-border and international retail business and more income from value-added services provided to merchants.

Cloud business revenue after inter-segment elimination jumped 20 percent to CNY19.5 billion from the same period a year ago.

Alibaba’s global annual active consumers totaled around 1.3 billion, up about 43 million in the quarter from the previous one, said Chairman Daniel Zhang.

When asked about whether Lazada was in the process of raising funds, Zhang, who is also chief executive, said the market has not placed enough value on Alibaba's business in terms of how it is being driven by a multi-engine strategy.

The full value of each of these businesses together is not reflected in where they are today, and this is one of the main reasons why Alibaba is pursuing a share buyback, he added. Alibaba repurchased about 10.1 million of its US-listed shares for about USD1.4 billion under a share buyback scheme that will expire by the end of this year.

Editor: Futura Costaglione