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On May 4, tech behemoth Alibaba showed off its dominance in the e-commerce space to local competitors, announcing the highest revenue growth of its core e-commerce businesses since the company’s IPO in 2014.

In the fiscal year ended March 31, 2018, the Hangzhou-headquartered company generated US$34.12 billion in revenue from core e-commerce businesses, up 60% YoY. Putting that into context, Alibaba’s archrival JD reports a 40.3% growth in net revenue in its 2017 annual report.

Alibaba’s revenue growth is amazing, not only because it’s the highest since the company’s IPO, but also because the e-commerce giant is facing increasingly fierce competition from Tencent-backed enemies, JD and Pinduoduo. The latter is China’s fastest-growing e-commerce app that claims to have 300 million users and achieved a GMV of over 100 billion yuan (approx. $ 15.9 billion) by the end of 2017.

At the same time, Alibaba managed to grow its already huge number of annual active consumers to 552 million, an increase of 98 million from the 12-month period ended March 31, 2017.

In the global setting, Alibaba expects to benefit in long-term from its US$4 billion investment in Lazada, as it views Southeast Asia as a “very competitive market but is still in early stages of online retail penetration”, according to its newly released financial report.

Despite the considerable growth of revenue, Alibaba’s adjusted EBITA margin for core e-commerce businesses fell 9% to 53% in the fiscal year of 2018, predominantly due to the $4 billion capital injection in Lazada and its investments in new retail.

Here are some stories and ideas from last week that you shouldn’t miss.

CHINA

China’s Xiaomi files for what could be the world’s largest IPO since 2014

Tencent Music moves toward US IPO; Valuation said to double in four-month time

Asia dominates mega deals; Alibaba lagging behind Tencent in corporate investments : CB Insights/ PwC Report

Chinese unicorn UBTECH Robotics raises $820 million from Tencent-led consortium

Didi Chuxing in talks with Volkswagen to jointly develop autonomous car models for ride-hailing

Southeast Asia

Singtel, Razer in e-payment tie-up to unify cashless payments in South-east Asia

Allianz RE scouts for logistics deals in China, India and Southeast Asia

Ride-Hailing Firm Grab in Talks to Raise $1 Billion

Sharia fintech in Indonesia seeing early boom, but VCs need convincing

Noteworthy Startups

Leveraging computer vision and AI technologies, Comma Smart helps convenience stores reduce labor costs

Chinese mini gym operator ParkBox raises Series A+ financing round led by Huazhu Hotels Group

Alibaba invests in SenseTime to speed up AI adoption in real world cases