Alibaba has reported 80% rise in its revenues during the fourth quarter of 2012 to $1.84bn, compared to the corresponding quarter a year ago.

The company’s net profit increased by about 171.1%, and reached $642m during the quarter over the same quarter in 2012.

During the quarter ending 30 September 2013, the firm reported a 78% rise in revenue to $4.1bn, while net profit increased by 80% to $484.5m.

Alibaba operates e-commerce in China which includes Alibaba.com, Taobao and Tmall.

Industry viewers anticipate Alibaba to seek an initial public offering as early as by 2013 and it is expected to fetch a valuation as high as Facebook’s $100bn.

Alibaba has also revealed plans to set up $160m funding programme for application (app) makers to support developing apps for its operating system and encourage its own smartphone OS through subsidies to handset makers.

The Chinese e-commerce firm, which is 24% owned by Yahoo, has recently acquired an 18% stake in Sina’s popular microblogging platform, Weibo, as part of a $586m.

The firm also has option to increase its stake to 30% in future at a jointly agreed valuation within a certain period of time.