China's JD.com posts revenue jump amid costly food delivery push
The Beijing-based shopping platform has faced pressure in recent years from a persistent domestic spending slump and heightened competition with its primary rival, Alibaba.
Investors are now closely watching for signs of how JD.com will fare in its bid to challenge dominant food delivery provider Meituan, after launching its own meal service in February.
JD.com achieved net revenue of 301.1 billion yuan ($41.8 billion) in the three-month period ended March 31, according to results published to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
The figure represented a 15.8 percent year-on-year leap, outpacing a Bloomberg forecast of 12 percent and more than twice as fast as last year's first-quarter growth of seven percent.
Net income, meanwhile, came in at 10.9 billion yuan during the first quarter, improving from 7.1 billion yuan during the same period last year.
The growth came despite the firm's costly initiative to waive delivery fees this year for eateries that registered before May 1, in an attempt to grab market share from Meituan and Alibaba's Ele.me.
The company on Tuesday hailed "substantial progress in a very brief time" for its expansion into food delivery.
JD.com's foray into the food sector comes as Beijing increasingly embraces online service platforms as a useful driver of employment and domestic consumption in the face of broader pressures on growth.
JD.com CEO Sandy Xu said on Tuesday that the company's earnings were boosted in the first quarter by "improving consumer sentiment and continued enhancements to JD's supply chain capabilities and user experience".
But official data released over the weekend showed that spending in China remains mired in a slump.
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