Original title: What happened to the Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com this year?
China News Agency, Beijing, May 12 (Reporter Chen Kangliang) JD.com, a leading enterprise in China’s e-commerce industry, recently released its quarterly report. Data show that in the first quarter of this year, JD.com achieved operating income of about 243 billion yuan (RMB, the same below), a year-on-year increase of 1.4%; realized net profit attributable to ordinary shareholders of about 6.3 billion yuan, turning losses into profits year-on-year. JD.com lost about 3 billion yuan in the same period last year, and its performance in the first quarter exceeded market expectations.
After the release of the data, the stock price of JD.com U.S. stocks rose sharply before the market, and successfully recorded an increase of more than 7% on the same day.
Right now, JD.com really needs some good news. As of May 11, the share price of JD.com’s U.S. stocks has fallen by more than 32% this year, and its market value has fallen to about US$59.2 billion. This year, more than US$30 billion has evaporated.
Before the results were released, many research institutions held a conservative attitude towards JD.com’s first-quarter performance. Zhongtai Securities previously released a research report saying that in the first quarter of 2023, Jingdong Group’s revenue is expected to decrease by 2% year-on-year, and retail business revenue will decrease by 4% year-on-year. The main reason is that: the company started to adjust the category of big business supermarkets, including structural optimization and streamlining channels, etc. The focus of internal business assessment has also shifted to the growth rate of GMV (gross merchandise transaction) instead of revenue. It is expected that short-term revenue will be affected; home appliances , consumer electronics and other core categories of sales recovery is relatively slow, the overall demand is lower than expected.
Talking about the performance in the first quarter, the relevant person in charge of Jingdong Group emphasized that in the first quarter, Jingdong’s profitability increased significantly, mainly due to the company’s efforts in refining operations, optimizing product mix, and enriching the scope of services.
Looking forward to the second quarter and the whole year, Industrial Securities analyst Hong Jiajun said that due to the internal adjustment of the organizational structure, the impact of the acquisition of related companies in the third quarter of last year is expected to disappear, and the company’s revenue growth may continue to be under pressure. But in the long run, we are optimistic about the improvement of organizational efficiency brought about by the adjustment of the organizational structure and the elasticity of income growth brought about by the change of the commodity structure.
According to media reports, in April this year, JD.com launched the organizational reform of the purchasing and marketing system, setting the tone for the biggest organizational change in five years. JD Retail plans to cancel the business group system and change it to a business department system. The business department will be split into specific business units according to subdivided categories, and the person in charge of the category will have more decision-making autonomy, including the power to appoint and remove personnel; In the business unit of the company, self-operated products and third-party products will be fully opened up. The two will no longer be distinguished, and will be managed by a unified category leader to further realize “traffic equality.”
In fact, the continuous decline of JD.com’s stock price is due to both JD.com’s internal “microclimate” factors and the “big climate” of Chinese concept stocks. After experiencing a brief rebound at the end of last year and the beginning of this year, Chinese concept stocks have resumed their downward path. Taking the Nasdaq China Golden Dragon Index as an example, the index experienced a decline of about 10% in February and April respectively; if calculated on an annual basis, the index has fallen for three consecutive years.
In this regard, Zhao Qingming, deputy director of the China Foreign Exchange Investment Research Institute, said in an interview with a reporter from China News Agency that from October last year to January this year, there was a round of rising prices in US and Chinese stocks. Good early response. However, considering that the current recovery foundation of China’s economy, especially the recovery foundation of the private economy, needs to be consolidated, the stock price fell back somewhat. On the other hand, the decline of Chinese concept stocks is also related to the market environment and market atmosphere of the US stock market. The current overall US stock market is relatively weak, and the preference of funds for Chinese concept stocks has also declined. These have affected the stock prices of Chinese concept stocks.
Looking ahead, Yu Haiyan, fund manager of E Fund, said that in the short term, factors such as global financial conditions, domestic and overseas industrial development and regulatory policies may still cause disturbances to the price and valuation of overseas Chinese concept stocks. But in the medium and long term, the price center is determined by the future development prospects of the industry and the performance fundamentals of listed companies. Many Chinese concept stocks, especially the top companies among Chinese Internet companies, are representative companies in China’s digital economy and platform economy. As China’s economy stabilizes and consumption recovers in the future, related Chinese concept stocks are also expected to usher in a sustained, benign and healthy development situation.
It is worth noting that, according to media reports, recently, the US accounting regulator claimed that it found unacceptable flaws in the audits of some Chinese companies listed in the US by KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers. In this regard, Zhao Qingming reminded that audit supervision has a greater impact on Chinese concept stocks, and the recent resurgence of variables should be properly dealt with to prevent negative effects from fermenting. (over)
[Editor: Chen Haifeng]