Richard Liu, CEO and founder of China's e-commerce company JD.com, at the opening bell of the NASDAQ Market Site building at Times Square in New York in May 2014. (Photo : Reuters)
Chinese e-commerce firm JD has released its quarterly earnings report for the period ending on March 31, which showed the company’s continued growth, registering a total of $10 billion in consumer sales.
According to an article published on techinasia.com, the earnings report reflected the company's good performance in the first quarter with gross merchandise volume (GMV)--which is the amount people spent on the store--reaching 8.78 billion yuan (about $14.2 billion), indicating a 99-percent increase year-on-year. The net revenues hit 36.6 million yuan (about $14.2 billion), which showed a 63-percent annual increase.
The report said that the company attributed the revenue leap to its growing customer base. According to the company, the active customer accounts grew 90 percent to 105.2 million year-on-year, and fulfilled orders rose by 72 percent to 227.2 million.
In China, JD is considered the biggest rival to Alibaba's Tmall and Taobao. The two Alibaba companies have more than 350 million combined active shoppers.
According to the article, the company reported a slight loss as non-GAAP net margin showed a negative 0.6 percent, while the cost of revenues grew 58 percent annually. The company said that the increase may be attributed to customer acquisition costs, which is a necessary factor in expansion.
The report said that JD's contribution in the country's e-commerce industry remains valuable, in relationship with Tencent, best known for the popular WeChat messenger. WeChat gained major control of Tencent's e-commerce stores after buying a 15-percent stake in JD, which was boosted by a special shopping section inside WeChat.
The report added that neither JD nor Tencent has openly divulged how their integration or partnership with WeChat has affected their revenues.
In the past years, JD has vigorously pursued its investment in on-demand delivery startups. The report said that the company also closed deals with Ele.me, a startup company engaged in meal delivery with $350 million investment last January; and with Daojia, for a $50 million deal last September.
JD said that the two firms are "major partners" of Paidaojia, the company's standalone delivery app.
