Alibaba revenue beats estimates on cloud boost; shares rise

China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd beat analysts' estimates for fourth-quarter revenue on Wednesday, boosted by growth in its core e-commerce and cloud computing businesses.

The company' shares rose more than 2% to $179.79 in pre-market trading.

Alibaba makes money primarily by selling advertising and promotional services to third-party merchants that list products on Taobao and Tmall, two of its e-commerce sites. The business boomed in tandem with internet adoption and mobile phone penetration in China.

Alibaba's revenue rose to 93.50 billion yuan ($13.59 billion) for the three months ended March 31, beating estimates of 91.58 billion yuan, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Revenue from the company's cloud computing business rose 76% in the reported period.

Alibaba is the world's third-largest cloud service provider, after Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc, and the largest in China with a market share of over 40%, according to data from IDC.

Net income attributable to ordinary shareholders rose to 25.83 billion yuan from 7.56 billion yuan in the fourth quarter.