Yesterday Alibaba issued its first profit report since going public earlier this year and the company is showing healthy growth. Net income increased by 16 percent between July and September and total revenue in the quarter was up by 54 percent.

Alibaba is China’s biggest online retailer by-transactions. The company reported sales of €72.3 billion in the last three months - to put that figure in perspective Amazon’s sales were just over €16 billion. After its initial public offering in September, Alibaba was worth more than Facebook.

The e-Commerce group is comprised of two main sites, an e-Bay style consumer-to-consumer marketplace called Taobao and another site called Tmall where companies can sell directly to consumers.

These impressive figures come against the backdrop of slowing economic performance in China, reflecting the growth of online shopping in the country. Alibaba's number of active buyers increased by 52 percent in 12 months.

Mobile has been singled out as a big growth area – Alibaba gained 29 million mobile users in the last quarter.

Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma started the company from a small apartment in 1999 and is now the richest man in China.

A number of factors have contributed to the group's success, one being its savvy approach to marketing. The company took an obscure student holiday on November 11 last year and turned it into a Black Friday style national retail event by offering reductions across all their sites and sold goods worth over €4.5 billion during that 24-hour period alone.

The group is hoping to post even bigger sales when the holiday falls again next Tuesday.