Alibaba shares fall after disappointing forecast

Shares in Hong Kong electronic commerce giant Alibaba tumbled as a slowdown in the Chinese economy and increased competition hurt the company's quarterly financial report. Total revenue for the quarter was 208.20 billion yuan ($1 = 7.04 yuan), lower than the 210.3 billion yuan expected by analysts. For the year, total revenue grew by just 2% to 868.69 billion yuan, the lowest growth rate since the IPO in 2014. Alibaba shares in Hong Kong fell more than 5% on the local stock exchange. While the announcement by shortist Michael Burry, who doubled his position in the company, supported the stock for a while, the last day's drop made that gain insignificant. Alibaba's direct sales in China account for the bulk of its revenue, and they were down 1% in the quarter due to lower consumer spending in China. The company is also facing increased competition from other e-commerce retailers including JD.com (HK: 9618) (NASDAQ: JD) and PDD Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: PDD), as well as cloud services rival Tencent Holdings Ltd (HK :HK:0700). Alibaba earned a net profit of 23.52 billion yuan for the year, compared to a loss of 16.24 billion yuan. In addition, the company aims to enter the generative artificial intelligence market with the Tongyi Qianwen model introduced last month.