Alibaba revenue tops as online sales surge during lockdown

(Reuters) – China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd reported a better-than-expected quarterly revenue on Friday, as the COVID-19 lockdowns drove more people to shop online for essentials.

Revenue rose to 114.31 billion yuan ($16.02 billion) in the fourth quarter ended March 31 from about 93.50 billion yuan, a year earlier.

Analysts had expected revenue of 107.04 billion yuan, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

(Reporting by Akanksha Rana in Bengaluru and Josh Horwitz in Shanghai; Editing by Arun Koyyur)