(Yicai) Nov. 18 -- Alibaba Group Holding reported a 63 percent increase in net profit in the fiscal second quarter from a year ago, mainly thanks to the Chinese company's latest strategic adjustments to its core e-commerce and cloud businesses.

Net profit was CNY43.9 billion (USD6.3 billion) in the three months ended Sept. 30, primarily because of mark-to-market changes from equity investments, a decrease in impairment of investment, and an increase in income from operations, the Hangzhou-based firm said in its latest earnings report on Nov. 15. Revenue rose 5 percent to CNY236.5 billion (USD33.7 billion).

"Our revenue growth this quarter was driven by improving monetization of Taobao and Tmall Group, which included gross merchandise volume-based service fees and merchant adoption of our marketing tool Quanzhantui," said Toby Xu, chief financial officer of Alibaba.

For Taobao and Tmall, Alibaba increased investment in strategic initiatives, such as price-competitive products, customer service, membership program benefits, and technology to enhance user experience. It also adopted a more open approach for payment and logistics services to make shopping more convenient to a larger base of consumers and improve merchants' operating efficiency.

On Sept. 1, Taobao and Tmall introduced a software service fee based on the GMV of completed transactions, which put the group's platforms in line with the common practice of the e-commerce industry. Alibaba's 88VIP membership program achieved double-digit growth to 46 million users in the quarter from a year earlier.

Revenue from Alibaba International Digital Commerce Group surged 29 percent to CNY31.7 billion in the September quarter from the same period last year, driven by the growth of cross-border businesses, in particular AliExpress' Choice. 

"We are more confident in our core businesses than ever and will continue to invest in supporting long-term growth," Alibaba's Chief Executive Officer Eddie Wu said. "Our other businesses continued to improve their operating efficiency, with most of them continuing to increase their profitability or reduce losses."

Alibaba's Cloud Intelligence Group logged CNY29.6 billion in revenue in the second fiscal quarter, up 7 percent from a year earlier thanks to a double-digit public cloud growth and increased adoption of artificial intelligence-related products. As of Sept. 30, Alibaba's Qwen AI model family had been downloaded over 40 million times.

"Our financial discipline enables us to navigate market challenges while executing on our strategic priorities," Xu noted. "We are encouraged by the strong performance in cloud and e-commerce as pillars of future growth."

Cainiao Smart Logistics Network saw its revenue grow 8 percent to CNY24.6 billion in the period, mainly driven by increased revenue from cross-border fulfillment solutions.

Revenue from Local Services Group, which includes navigation app Amap and takeaway app Ele.me, jumped 14 percent to CNY17.7 billion, while that from Digital Media and Entertainment Group fell 1 percent to CNY5.7 billion (USD811 million).

Editor: Futura Costaglione