Chinese online retail giant Alibaba beat analyst estimates with a 54 percent rise in third-quarter revenue, benefiting from its sharpened focus on cloud and digital media ventures as well as gains in its core business.

Seeking new revenue streams with a series of data, cloud, artificial intelligence and logistics projects as China's e-commerce market begins to show signs of saturation, Alibaba said after Tuesday's results that it would raise 2017 full-year guidance for revenue growth to 54 percent from 48 percent.

In recent months, executives including Chairman Jack Ma have identified Alibaba as a data company, downplaying the role of online retail in its future.

It submitted a $2.6 billion bid this month to privatize Chinese department store operator Intime Retail Group, saying it intended to use data to digitize offline shopping.

In a conference call after Tuesday's earnings, Chief Executive Daniel Zhang said the company would leverage its data to explore new modes of retail, treating the Intime investment as a test.

Revenue from Alibaba's core e-commerce business accounted for 87 percent of total revenue in the three months to Dec. 31, down from 92 percent in the same period a year earlier.