After losing nearly 40% of its value over the past 12 months, Chinese online retailer, JD.com, finally broke out of its losing trend after the company reported its fourth-quarter earnings. The company reported annual revenue growth of 22% to $19.6 billion (134.8 billion RMB) beating estimates by $210 million, according to its latest Q4 report.
Non-GAAP net income of JD for the quarter rose 67% to 749.9 million RMB ($109.1 million), or $0.07 per ADS, which beat the estimates by $0.12. However, on a GAAP basis, its net loss widened from 0.9 billion RMB a year ago to 4.8 billion RMB ($0.7 billion), or $0.40 per ADS.
Over the past year, investors have been really concerned about the company’s performance. Compared to Q4 2017, the results of Q4 2018 showed deceleration in JD's annual growth in GMV (gross merchandise volume), active customers, and revenue.
But JD expects a revenue rise of 18% to 22% in the first quarter, matching Wall Street expectations. Its non-GAAP earnings are also likely to improve 30%, and all these indicate that JD’s growth could be stabilizing.
Moving away from its core marketplace, JD has also been diversifying its business by offering its logistics services to other retailers like the Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten (RKUNY) along with selling more ads across its marketplace. Therefore, revenue from these high-margin services saw a 50% annual in 2018 and accounted for ~10% of its revenue, up from 8% in 2017.
Other JD.com investments include the launching of Mini Programs on Tencent’s WeChat last year, and its ever-increasing ties with Walmart (WMT) in terms of delivery services.
JD is also intensifying its Prime-like "JD Plus" subscription program, which locks in customers with discounts, curated products, VIP customer service, and access to premium digital content from partners like iQiyi.