JD.com's revenue growth beats expectations

[BEIJING] JD.com, China's second biggest e-commerce company behind Alibaba, has reported better than expected revenue growth in the last three months of 2015 as volume sales on its platforms jumped despite China's economic slowdown.

The company, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's main rival in online shopping, said on Tuesday fourth-quarter revenue rose 57 per cent to US$8.34 billion.

However, JD.com's net losses ballooned to US1.16 billion in the last quarter, more than 16 times as much as a year earlier, which it blamed on impairment charges on its Paipai.com business. Excluding one-off and extraordinary items net losses were US$100.10 million.

China's economy has been growing at its slowest rate in a quarter of a century, although consumer buying is still relatively healthy.

The total value of merchandise transactions on JD.com's platforms was up 69 per cent at US$22.19 billion in the quarter.

REUTERS