Deferred revenue and customer advances

12 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2020

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 or customers for which the relevant services have not been provided. The respective balances are as follows:

	As of March 31,
	2019	2020
	(in millions of RMB)
Deferred revenue	18,448	23,195
Customer advances	13,814	17,168
	32,262	40,363
Less: current portion	(30,795)	(38,338)
Non-current portion	1,467	2,025

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 the amounts are transferred to deferred revenue. Substantially all of the balances of deferred revenue and customer advances are generally recognized as revenue within one year.