Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba posted quarterly revenue down slightly for the first time in its history on Thursday, but above expectations, against a backdrop of economic slowdown and tighter regulations.

For the first quarter of its fiscal year staggered between April and June 2022, turnover stood at 205.55 billion yuan, or 30.7 billion dollars, detailed the group in a press release evoking a „decline ” in cloud-based clearinghouse businesses.

„After a relatively weak April and May, we see signs of recovery in our business in June,” Group CEO Daniel Zhang was quoted in the statement as saying.

Last year, at the same time, its sales had increased by 34% over one year, to 205.7 billion yuan.

Since the end of 2020, the authorities have been intransigent against certain practices of the digital giants, previously widely tolerated, in terms of the collection of personal data and competition.