Understand any stock in simple English
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JD.com, Inc.
JD.com is a big Chinese online retailer that sells almost everything, and also runs its own delivery network and sells technology and logistics services to other businesses.
JD.com is one of China's two giant online shopping companies. People use it to buy almost anything you can think of: groceries, electronics, clothes, home goods. It also runs its own huge delivery network, which is unusual for an online retailer. Most e-commerce companies hand packages to outside couriers; JD.com employs its own drivers and owns its own warehouses, so it can promise same-day or next-day delivery in many Chinese cities.
The company made its name by being the trustworthy option. When Chinese online shopping was young, fakes and scams were everywhere. JD.com started out selling electronics it could vouch for, then let other merchants sell on its site too. Its own delivery fleet meant your order actually showed up, on time, and you could pay cash at the door. That reliability, not just low prices, is what made shoppers loyal. JD.com has a few distinct pieces. There's the shopping side, where it sells products itself and also earns fees from outside sellers who list on its marketplace. There's logistics, which it used to keep mostly in-house but now sells as a service to other companies. And there's a newer push into food delivery and quick local services, taking on Meituan in China's instant-delivery wars. In Europe, it has been building a retail foothold, including a bid for the consumer electronics chain Ceconomy.
The original founder, Richard Liu, started the business as a tiny electronics stall in Beijing in 1998 and moved it online after the SARS outbreak in 2003, when customers stopped showing up in person. The company was long called 360buy before adopting the JD.com name. It is listed in Hong Kong and New York, and it competes most directly with Alibaba and its Tmall and Taobao marketplaces, plus Pinduoduo on low prices. JD.com's edge is speed and reliability; its weakness is that all those warehouses and drivers are expensive, which keeps profit margins thin.
Saved answer · last researched 12 Nov 2026