Alibaba's Q1 sales short of expectations

With sales growth slowing in China, Alibaba is looking across its borders to give sales a boost. The Chinese e-commerce powerhouse reported first-quarter net income more than doubled on strong growth across its online and mobile platforms. Though revenue jumped 28 percent, the growth fell short of Wall Street expectations and shares fell to their lowest point since the company's initial public offering last year. Conlumino analyst Neil Saunders noted that revenue growth over the past fiscal year was 39 percent, and it reached 59 percent the year before that. "This is not to infer criticism of Alibaba, but it does suggest that its core Chinese business has now reached a level of maturity that will dampen future growth rates," Saunders wrote. Alibaba went public in the U.S. in September and investors, seeking to tap into the rapidly growing Chinese middle-class, scrambled to buy shares. Alibaba's e-commerce platforms, including Taobao and Tmall, make up 80 percent of Chinese e-commerce. But China's growth has slowed and Beijing devalued the yuan this week to calm domestic markets that have become extremely volatile. Alibaba has begun looking abroad to spur sales, both from U.S. companies selling goods on its platforms in China and Chinese sellers reaching international customers.