China's ecommerce Giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd on Thursday beat market estimates, as it announced better than expected third quarter results, with both sales and revenue recording better than expected growth.

Alibaba announced that its revenue as of Dec. 31, 2016 stands at 34.53 bn Yuan, as compared to 26.2 bn Yuan a year ago. The company's net income also doubled to 12.5 billion Yuan.          

Like Us on Facebook

Gross merchandise volume (GMV), which takes into account the total value of goods sold on the site, also posted a solid 23 per cent growth to reach 964 bn Yuan ($149bn). According to Alibaba, mobile sales contributed 68 per cent to GMV's growth during third quarter, as compared to 42% throughout last year.

Buoyed by this good result, Alibaba's U.S.-listed shares at were trading at $72.72 in premarket trading today, up by 4.6 percent. 

Considering the current turmoil plaguing the China's economy, many market analysts had very conservative expectations regarding Alibabs's third quarterly results. But with better than expected results, Alibaba clearly defied the sluggish economy.

Some observers credit this to Jack Ma's bet on exploring China's burgeoning rural economy. Reports suggest that Ma is not leaving any stone unturned to tap into the spending power of rural areas, where more than 50 percent of China's population resides.             

Alibaba is also making an effort to lessen its dependence on the Chinese market by aggressively pursuing growth in international markets. Ma reportedly wants Alibaba's revenue from international market to grow to 50 percent in the coming years, as compared to merely 4 percent  today.

Market analysts are of the view that Alibaba's bet to explore new markets will surely pay off in coming years, eventually helping the ecommerce giant to sustain its solid growth rate.

TagsAlibaba, Jack Ma