Alibaba quarterly earnings plunge 28% to $964m

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba said Thursday its net profit for the three months ending December plunged 28 percent to $964 million, hit by a one-off charge and higher taxes.
However sales soared 40 percent to $4.219 billion, and earnings per share were up 13 percent to 81 cents.
Alibaba completed the world's biggest IPO with its listing on the New York Stock Exchange in September.
Headquartered in the eastern city of Hangzhou, Alibaba operates China's most popular online shopping platform, Taobao, which is estimated to hold more than 90 percent of the online market for consumer-to-consumer transactions.