JD.com loss widens

Richard Liu, CEO and founder of China's e-commerce company JD.com, gestures before ringing the opening bell at the NASDAQ Market Site building at Times Square in New York May 22, 2014.

Richard Liu, CEO and founder of China's e-commerce company JD.com, gestures before ringing the opening bell at the NASDAQ Market Site building at Times Square in New York May 22, 2014.

Published Aug 15, 2014

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Beijing - JD.com, the Chinese online retailer with a business model similar to Amazon.com, reported a wider loss because of higher costs in its first set of financial results since going public three months ago.

The net loss widened to 582.5 million yuan (R1 billion) in the three months ended June from 28.3 million yuan a year earlier, the Beijing-based company said in a statement today.

The loss was projected at 257.2 million yuan, the average estimate of six analysts compiled by Bloomberg.

JD.com’s initial public offering that raised $1.78 billion in May has enabled the company to spend on warehouses, delivery vehicles and technology as it steps up competition to larger rival Alibaba.

Tencent, which bought a stake in JD.com in March, is giving users of its instant messaging applications easier access to the e-commerce partner and generating traffic.

JD.com and Alibaba have different business models.

JD.com follows a model similar to billionaire Jeff Bezos’s Amazon.com where the company manages inventory and sells products such as home appliances, books and clothes directly to consumers while Alibaba provides the platform that brings buyers and sellers together.

Alibaba is preparing for an IPO that could be the largest in US history.

Tencent, Asia’s largest Internet company, in March agreed to buy a 15 percent stake in JD.com and then folded its e-commerce businesses into the venture. - Bloomberg News

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