It surpassed analysts' expectations: Alibaba increased its revenues by 42% in the first quarter of this year.

From April to June, the income of China's e-commerce giant rose to €14.7 billion, driven by the growth of its e-commerce and cloud computing units.

Over the same period it last year, its revenues were €10.4 billion

The company announced that its active consumer network has now reached 674 million users, an increase of 17% compared to last year.

Slowing domestic growth is now its biggest challenge. The online retail market is seen as saturated in China's big cities.

Alibaba will have a new chairman next month. Chief executive Daniel Zhang will take over from Jack Ma.

The company's charismatic founder wants to focus more on philanthropy and education.