China has seen an economic slump as Covid cases came back around in the world’s most populous country. Just as was witnessed in America during its quarantine, Chinese consumers stuck at home are still spending big bucks.

Alibaba reported better-than-expected earnings and sales last week for the most recent fiscal quarter. Shares of Alibaba were up nearly 15% in late morning trading after the reports of growing their revenue by 9% from a year ago.

The company also said the strength was due in part to solid online and mobile shopping demand as well as a 12% jump in sales from its massive cloud unit. There was a reported 1 Billion+ active users in China, which is the first time of surpassing that milestone. Alibaba globally has more than 1.3 Billion customers.

CEO and chairman Daniel Zhang said, “despite macro challenges that impacted supply chains and consumer sentiment."

The CFO, Toby Xu, said "we certainly are seeing signs of improvement going into the month of May." and also reinforced that Alibaba will still "take time" for outstanding shipments to be delivered. Toby added, "many merchants may need to invest in order to grow their revenues.”

Read more about the shift in Chinese consumer spending habits HERE