Due to a historic anti-monopoly fine, China's top e-commerce platform Alibaba Group Holding Ltd announced its first quarterly operating loss since going public in 2014. Even as the company projected revenue for 2022 beyond market estimates, its U.S.-listed shares dropped more than 3% in volatile premarket trading, betting that the wider pandemic-driven transition to online shopping would remain resilient.

However, a regulatory crackdown overshadowed the positive outlook, resulting in the cancellation of a $37 billion IPO by its partner Ant Group and a $2.8 billion fine for anti-competitive market practises.

In April, China's markets regulator imposed the world's largest fine of its kind.

For the fiscal year ending March 2022, Alibaba expects annual sales of 930 billion yuan ($144.12 billion), which is higher than analysts' average estimate of 928.25 billion yuan.

The anti-monopoly fine contributed to a net loss of 5.48 billion yuan, or $1.99 per American depository share (ADS), attributable to ordinary shareholders.

Excluding items, Alibaba earned 10.32 yuan per ADS, below expectation of 11.11 yuan.

In the three months ended March 31, revenue increased to 187.4 billion yuan ($29.03 billion), exceeding the 180.41 billion yuan expected by 30 analysts polled by Refinitiv.

Alibaba's stock has dropped more than 30% after reaching a new high in late October, when Alibaba founder Jack Ma gave a talk in Shanghai criticising China's financial regulators.

The company's China retail marketplaces and continued customer acceptance of e-commerce in the aftermath of the pandemic pushed core commerce revenue up 72 percent to 161.37 billion yuan in the period.

E-commerce, retail, Internet, and technology are all areas of expertise for this Chinese multinational tech company. The company, which was founded on June 28, 1999 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, provides web-based customer, business-to-business, and business-to-business sales services, as well as electronic payment services, shopping search engines, and cloud computing services.