ALIBABA Group Holding reported better than expected top line results Friday, driven by strong sales in its commerce and cloud computing units, even as margins were squeezed by a flurry of investments.

The company’s first-quarter revenue grew 61 percent to 61.9 billion yuan (US$9.73 billion) from a year earlier, beating analyst estimates of a 53-percent increase.

The results mark two years of continuous quarterly revenue growth above 50 percent for Alibaba, even as new business investments in offline retail, cloud computing and overseas expansion continue to weigh on margins.

Alibaba’s operating margin for the quarter was 15 percent, down from 25 percent a year earlier.

The Internet giant announced in March that it will invest an additional US$2 billion in Southeast Asian e-commerce firm Lazada Group, adding to a run of recent investments in China.

Chief executive Daniel Zhang said the firm “will continue to invest aggressively” with a goal of surpassing US$1 trillion in gross merchandise volume by 2020.(SD-Agencies)