Everyone in the digital marketing field has already heard about Tencent, Alibaba, Xiaomi, and Baidu. But there is another Chinese digital giant that cannot be left apart, called JD.com, that is gaining each year more and more market shares.
What is Jindong
Created in 1998 by Richard Liu, JD.com (or Jindong) is the second largest e-commerce platform in China in terms of market shares, after Alibaba. This e-commerce giant made 55 billion dollars revenue in 2017, with 292,5 million customers in December 2017. Its market shares increased in a very significant way. From 2014 to 2017, its market shares on the B2C market went from 18% to 33 %!
Differences with Alibaba
The main difference with Alibaba is that Alibaba creates platforms letting companies (Tmall) and people (Taobao) to directly sell to customers.
Whereas JD is an integrated platform, which means that it sells directly its own goods to customers. JD stocks its own inventory and ships the product with its own delivery service. Owning the inventories is a way to guarantee the quality of the products and to avoid counterfeit. JD is then closer to Amazon than to Alibaba.
An innovative company
Jindong opened an innovative shop near Shenzhen called 7Fresh. On the 8 000 fresh products, 90% will be available on JD platform. People can choose to pay with cash, credit card, the App of 7Fresh, and even by facial recognition! They can also choose to make their products delivered to their home in 30 minutes if they live 2km next the store.
JD’s current logistics system already covers most of China’s urban centers, but the rural areas remain difficult to access. This is why JD is aiming to build 185 drone airports in Southern China, to be able to reach rural areas which represent a market twice the size of the US. Some drones will be able to carry 1000 kilos.
According to JD’s report, “Technology and content expenses increased by 74.5% to RMB2.1 billion (US$0.3 billion) in the fourth quarter of 2017 from RMB1.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2016 as a result of the Company’s increased investment in top talent in AI, big data and cloud-based solutions.”.
JD invested 259 million dollars for a 5.5 percent stake in VIPshop, an e-commerce platform specialized in fashion. Tencent also invested 604 million dollars for a 7 percent stake. This move was aimed to attack Alibaba in the e-commerce and retail field.
JD expands worldwide
The Chinese company just opened an office in France (in January 2018, the 22nd), directed by Florent Coureau. it’s the first JD’s European office. It aims to promote the company among companies in Europe, to invest in the delivery process of the brand the company sells in China, and to improve the delivery process of the Chinese brands who will sell in France and Europe.
Until 2019, JD has planned to sell for about 2 billion euros of French Products to Chinese consumers.
On the other side, another Chinese startup called Pinduoduo is growing really fast, threatening Alibaba in the e-commerce field. Pushed by Tencent, Pinduoduo has created a new way to shop online. more info here!