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But the company ended up spending a record amount in 2018 – something the market was happy about. Last year, more than 278.8 billion yuan, or $ 41.6 billion, was spent on product development, sales and marketing, general administration, and product costs. , an increase of 86.2% of the renminbi compared to 2017, when the company spent 149.7 billion yuan.
"Ali seems more disciplined in his expenses in operating expenses, although management has suggested not to give up investing in these strategic activities," said Nomura in a research note released Thursday.
These "strategic activities" include what Alibaba calls "new retail", a term used to describe how it can integrate all of its services, from payments to logistics services, to physical stores, to create an "ecosystem" ".
"It's about knowing how to integrate online and offline to move to a whole digitized business world," Daniel Zhang, CEO of Alibaba, told CNBC in an interview last year.
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