China’s JD.com quarterly revenue tops estimates, Q3 growth seen slowing
JD.com, China’s second-largest e-commerce site by sales, reported a 61 per cent year-on-year rise in quarterly revenue, topping expectations, powered by a jump in the number of shoppers and goods bought on its platform.
The group’s second-quarter revenue of 45.9 billion yuan (US$7.4 billion) exceeded an average estimate of 44.45 billion, according to a Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S poll of 14 analysts.
But the company’s growth rate is expected to slow in the third quarter. JD said it sees third-quarter revenue of between 43.2 and 44.7 billion yuan, which would be up 49 to 54 per cent from the previous year.
JD, a distant rival to Alibaba Group, is investing heavily in its offline operations to complement its internet platform, taking activities like warehousing and deliveries into its own hands.
This business model, similar in style to Amazon's , takes its toll and the company made a net loss of 510.4 million yuan, shrinking only slightly from the previous year’s 583 million despite the leap in revenue.
The catalyst for that jump was the 118 million annual active customer accounts on JD.com in the 12 months ended June 30, up 72 per cent from the same period a year earlier.
Those customers drove an 82 per cent jump in the total value of products sold on the company’s platforms in the quarter, to a total of 114.5 billion yuan.
JD also said it will buy 10 per cent of Chinese supermarket operator Yonghui Superstores for 4.31 billion yuan, with the right to nominate two directors to the board.
Shares in JD.com have risen 41.79 per cent since the beginning of the year.
