E-commerce giant Alibaba reports unexpectedly weak fourth-quarter sales

Revenue rose 3 percent to 243.4 billion yuan (equivalent to just over 330 billion kronor), but analysts had expected 246.5 billion yuan on average.

Net profit for the quarter essentially doubled to 25.5 billion yuan.

The Hangzhou-based conglomerate raised prices for its AI and cloud services during the quarter and, according to CEO Eddie Wu, aims to lift revenue streams from this segment to 100 billion yuan per year within five years.

Alibaba's stock fell about 3 percent in futures trading on Wall Street after the report.