Waning prospects dull appetite for Alibaba's investors

The e-commerce giant is struggling to compete with the likes of Amazon.com Inc and eBay Inc in mature markets such as Europe and the United States. Efforts to expand overseas could be affected by the company's plans to seek further growth opportunities in China.

Neil Flynn, portfolio manager at Alcuin Asset Management LLP, said: "At the moment, it is not necessary for Alibaba to boost its overseas business, because there are still many growth opportunities available in China.

"Tmall Global is seeing many foreign brands opening stores, and the firm is actively developing its infrastructure network in central and western China to increase revenue from this underdeveloped yet growingly wealthy demographic."

Alibaba put much of the money raised from its IPO into research and acquisitions of startups around the world. But some analysts contend that the company has expanded too fast and too aggressively.