Alibaba.com Ltd said its first-half net profit surged 136.2 percent to 697.2 million yuan ($102.03 million) from the year-earlier 295.2 million due to robust growth in the number of users and paying members.

China's leading business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce portal said revenue rose 47.8 percent to 1.42 billion yuan from 957.7 billion yuan a year earlier.

Earnings per share was 15.24 HK cents (1.95 cents), up from 6.18 HK cents a year earlier.

It said the number of registered users rose 32.5 percent from a year earlier to 32.52 million, of which 26.91 million were in China and the rest in other parts of the world.

The number of paying members rose 44 percent to 368,006.

It said it formed strategic partnerships aimed at further expanding its global operations and further diversifying its revenue sources beyond Chinese mainland.

A partnership was struck in April this year with Infomedia India Ltd, one of the largest B2B media companies in that south Asian country.

The company also formed a joint venture with Softbank Corp to take over the operation of Alibaba.com's existing Japanese-language website focusing on Japan's cross-border trade.

As a result, Alibaba saw a significant increase in the number of users from Japan.

The board did not recommend any interim dividend.