Deferred revenue and customer advances

12 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2016

Deferred revenue and customer advances

Deferred revenue and customer advances

18.   Deferred revenue and customer advances

Deferred revenue and customer advances primarily represent service fees prepaid by merchants for which the relevant services have not been provided. The respective balances are as follows:

	As of March 31,
	2015			2016
	(in millions of RMB)
Deferred revenue		5,781			7,236
Customer advances		2,578			3,479
		8,359			10,715
Less: current portion		(7,914	)		(10,297	)
Non-current portion		445			418

All service fees received in advance are initially recorded as customer advances. These amounts are transferred to deferred revenue upon commencement of the provision of services by the Company and are recognized in the consolidated income statements in the period in which the services are provided. In general, service fees received in advance are non-refundable after such amounts are transferred to deferred revenue.