09:10 AM EST, 11/15/2024 (MT Newswires) -- Alibaba Group's ( BABA ) fiscal second-quarter earnings declined less than expected but sales fell short of Wall Street estimates while the company's Cloud revenue grew year over year.

The Chinese e-commerce giant on Friday posted adjusted earnings of 15.06 renminbi ($2.15) per American depositary share for the three months ended Sept. 30, down from 15.63 renminbi a year earlier. The consensus among analysts on Capital IQ was for 14.77 renminbi. Revenue rose 5% year over year to 236.5 billion renminbi, missing the Street's view for 240.04 billion renminbi.

"Our revenue growth this quarter was driven by improving monetization of Taobao and Tmall Group, which included (gross merchandise value)-based service fees and merchant adoption of our marketing tool Quanzhantui," Chief Financial Officer Toby Xu said in a statement. "We continue to invest in our core businesses while enhancing operational efficiency."

Alibaba's ( BABA ) New York Stock Exchange-listed shares inclined 1.7% in premarket activity.

Sales in the Taobao and Tmall group segment ticked up 1% to 98.99 billion renminbi. Within this division, China commerce retail edged higher to 93.01 billion renminbi from 92.56 billion renminbi in the prior-year quarter, while wholesale jumped 18%. The international digital commerce business climbed 29% year over year to 31.67 billion renminbi.

Revenue in the cloud business rose 7% year over year to 29.61 billion renminbi. "Growth in our cloud business accelerated from prior quarters, with revenues from public cloud products growing in double digits and (artificial intelligence)-related product revenue delivering triple-digit growth," Chief Executive Eddie Wu said.

Local services revenue increased 14% while Cainiao Smart Logistics Network advanced by 8% in the quarter. Digital media and entertainment revenue decreased 1% on an annual basis.

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