Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. posted strong revenue and earnings for the second quarter, boosted by a record-breaking mid-year shopping festival in June, although sales growth slowed from a year earlier.

For the three months ended in June, the Chinese e-commerce giant reported revenue of 114.9 billion yuan ($16.74 billion), an increase of 42% over a year ago, beating Bloomberg analysts’ estimate of 111.6 billion yuan, but slower than the 61% year-on-year revenue growth in the same period last year, the company said Thursday.

During the promotional period from June 1 to June 18, Alibaba’s Tmall online shops recorded 38% year-over-year growth in gross sales.

The company said its non-GAAP diluted earnings per share were 12.55 yuan, an increase of 56% over a year ago.

The growth was driven by the company’s core e-commerce business and cloud computing. Core e-commerce, which accounts for about 87% of total revenue, grew 44% over the same period last year. Cloud computing revenue expanded 66% year-over-year to 7.79 billion yuan.

Annual active consumers on Alibaba’s China retail marketplaces reached 674 million, an increase of 20 million from the 12-month period ended March 31. The company said that more than 70% of the new customers were from less-developed areas, highlighting its efforts to deepen its penetration into lower-tier cities.