HONG KONG — The Alibaba Group, which owns China’s biggest online marketplaces, is squeezing more money out of slowing growth.

The Chinese e-commerce giant, which lists shares on the New York Stock Exchange, reported on Thursday a surge in profit and revenue in the first three months of the year compared with the same period last year. The company made more money by charging retailers to use its platforms, which connect vendors small and large with China’s growing ranks of connected consumers.

But the figures, covering the fourth quarter of the company’s fiscal year, also showed stalling growth in the volume of sales over its platforms. Gross merchandise volume, a closely watched measure of the transactions on the company’s websites, grew 24 percent compared with the same period a year earlier, about the same pace in the prior quarter.

Still, investors bid Alibaba’s shares up on Thursday. In a blog post released with the earnings report, Alibaba’s executive vice president, Joseph C. Tsai, said the company was able to buck the trend of broader global economic troubles because of the resilience of Chinese consumers, which economists say must make up for China’s weakening manufacturing and construction sectors.