Alibaba's guidance implies its revenue will fall between CNY33.3 billion ($4.9 billion) to CNY34.3 billion.

Alibaba's guidance was met with applause from those in attendance as the company also laid out a new vision: It wants to be viewed as a behemoth built on data. Management is positioning the company to become an integrated ecosystem that is able to collect, analyze and apply big data to help online retailers on its platform to deliver a better experience.

Alibaba believes its initiatives will help grow its total gross merchandise volume up from $547 billion last year to $1 trillion by 2020. The company also hopes to serve two billion customers across the entire world.

At time of publication prior to Thursday's opening bell, Alibaba shares were up 12.77 percent at $141.68.