Alibaba Q3 net profit up 55%

Alibaba.com (1688.HK) booked a third-quarter net profit of US$55.14 million, up 55% from the year before, on growing subscriber numbers and increased use of value-added services, the Wall Street Journal reported. The business-to-business portal saw revenue rise 40% to US$218.4 million, with more than 38,000 paying members signing up over the third quarter, bringing the total number of members to 750,937 by end-September. In order to increase revenue growth from value-added services, Alibaba.com said it will replace the lowest-priced membership option for its global B2B platform with a higher-priced package which will include more functions. Chief executive David Wei said the company is expected to continue to post robust growth figures and may announce a new acquisition "in the coming weeks."