It’s hard to put a positive spin on Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s $2.8 billion antitrust fine, but I’ll try.

That penalty, announced last month and recognized in the March quarter, pushed the Chinese e-commerce giant into its first operating loss in eight years. Even without that one-off expense, the company’s profit breakdown wasn’t looking particularly solid. Although operating income, excluding the fine, climbed 48%, that benefited from comparison with the disastrous March quarter last year, when it was slammed hard by the global pandemic that originated in China. It was only 21% higher compared with results in the same period two years earlier.

Revenue isn’t the problem. Sales at its China e-commerce segment, which includes marketing and commissions, climbed 72% — again from a low base a year earlier. Of great concern is that this core business once again contributed all of the operating profit because the rest of Alibaba’s divisions remain a drag on earnings. Cloud computing, for example, posted 37% revenue growth but continues to lose money, as does its digital media and entertainment business. To be fair, Alibaba said it lost a big overseas cloud client for "nonproduct-related reasons,” yet this shows just the precariousness of this noncore business.