BEIJING, May 18 (Xinhua) -- The following are highlights of China's key local business news from the past week.
-- SOYBEAN PLANTATION EXPANDS
Major soybean growers in China are expanding to achieve fast growth in domestic supply of high-quality soybean produce this year while cutting the country's dependence on imports.
The seeding for soybeans is going on in northeast China's Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and the central province of Henan, with an estimated planting expansion rate of over 10 percent this year.
-- VOLVO CAR BATTERY DEALS
Volvo Car Group signed long-term agreements with leading battery makers CATL and LG Chem to ensure the multi-billion dollars supply of lithium-ion batteries over the coming decade for next-generation Volvo and Polestar models.
The agreements cover the global supply of battery modules for all models on the upcoming SPA2 and the existing CMA modular vehicle platforms and represent a major step toward realizing Volvo Cars' ambitious electrification strategy.
-- HAIKOU'S GREEN CAR DRIVE
Haikou, capital of south China's Hainan Province, will work to have all buses in the city run on clean energy by 2020.
The move is in line with a broader push for green car use in the island province, which was announced as a pilot free trade zone last year. In March, Hainan required all government vehicles, except cars providing special services, to use clean energy by 2028.
-- ALIBABA REVENUE SURGES
China's e-commerce giant Alibaba saw its revenue for the fiscal year ending March 2019 surge 51 percent year on year to 376.84 billion yuan (54.8 billion U.S. dollars).
The increase was mainly driven by robust revenue growth of its China commerce retail business and the consolidation of Ele.me, as well as strong revenue growth of Alibaba Cloud.
As of the end of March, the annual active consumers on its China retail marketplaces reached 654 million, an increase of 102 million from a year ago.
-- TENCENT Q1 RESULTS
China's Internet giant Tencent saw its net profit increase by 14 percent year on year to 20.93 billion yuan in the first quarter of the year.
The company's total revenue came to 85.47 billion yuan in Q1, a rise of 16 percent from the same period last year.
Wechat, Tencent's social media platform, had over 1.11 billion active monthly users, up 6.9 percent year on year, while those of QQ, another one of Tencent's social media platforms, stood at over 700 million for the quarter.
-- BILIBILI REVENUE, USER NUMBER
Chinese online video sharing and entertainment service Bilibili Inc. reported 58 percent annual revenue growth in the first quarter of 2019 as monthly active users exceeded 100 million.
Revenues reached 1.37 billion yuan in the January-March period.
Its average monthly active users (MAUs) reached 101.3 million, with mobile MAUs growing 39 percent year on year to 88.6 million.
