JD.com reports 21% growth in revenue in Q1 as China market slows

Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com has reported a 21% increase in net revenues, marking its slowest Q1 growth on record.

JD.com’s revenues hit RMB121.1bn ($18bn), narrowly beating analyst expectations, and net income was RMB7.3bn ($1.1bn), a significant year-on-year increase from RMB1.5 bn in the first quarter of 2018.

Annual active customers reached 310.5 million in the year ending March 31, 2019, up from 305.3 million in December 2018. Quarterly active customer accounts in the first quarter of 2019 increased by 15% compared to the same period in 2018.

The results come at the end of a tough year for the retail giant, which is currently restructuring the business and laying off staff.

The restructure is a result of China’s slowing economic growth, the ongoing trade war with the US and the company’s volatile market performance last year after JD.com founder and CEO Richard Liu was arrested for alleged rape charges in the US.

In the current market climate, JD was keen to talk up its results highlighting its highly lucrative partnership with Tencent, which it has renewed for another three years. The deal enables links to JD.com’s stores in the hugely popular WeChat app. The two companies also continue to partner on a number ofretail, communications and advertising deals.

Last year, JD.com signed a partnership deal with Google, which saw the search giant invest $550m in a joint plan to develop “next generation” retail services.