Its online finance affiliate Ant Financial Services Group, one of founder Jack Ma's crown jewels in his e-commerce empire, recorded a net loss in the quarter. That business has spent heavily on its intense competition with WeChat Payment, one of the world's largest payments systems and owned by Alibaba arch-rival Tencent Holdings Ltd. Ant, which houses the massive Alipay online payment platform, is now valued at $60 billion and is gearing up for an IPO, despite the fact it is now losing money. Alibaba did not disclose how much Ant lost. Ma has often said he is aiming for a mainland listing for Ant, but for a company to list in China, it must have three years of annual profits. Alibaba executives said on Thursday the finance firm is still profitable on an annual basis.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-alibaba-results-idUSKCN0XW0Z8