HONG KONG — The Alibaba Group, the Chinese online shopping giant, has become so big that it is looking for growth by forging into new territory: the offline world.

Alibaba has snapped up stakes in grocers and in an electronics chain over the last three years, a perhaps counterintuitive series of moves for a company that helps consumers in China buy products with their smartphones. In part, the push is driven by the eventual maturation of its online business.

For now, however, online shopping still rules the roost.

Alibaba on Thursday reported a one-third rise in profit for the three months that ended in December, on revenue that rose by more than half. The revenue growth rate was its slowest in a year but still came in better than expected.

Investors are betting that Alibaba’s run will continue. The company’s stock more than doubled last year, installing it firmly in the technology world’s major league. Alibaba’s market capitalization now exceeds half a trillion dollars, making it smaller than Alphabet and Amazon but comparable to Facebook and China’s other internet colossus, Tencent Holdings.