JD.com Posts Quarterly Profit, Signaling Narrowing Food-Delivery Losses

By Tracy Qu

JD.com returned to the black in the first quarter, in a sign the Chinese e-commerce giant is making progress in stemming losses in its food-delivery business.

The online retailer has seen its bottom line quickly deteriorate since it entered China's highly competitive food-delivery market in early 2025, taking on the likes of Meituan and Alibaba Group. Its aggressive investments to capture market share and the ensuing price war eventually pushed the company into the red for the first time in nearly four years.

While e-commerce remains JD.com's primary business, the company has moved quickly to gain a foothold in the food-delivery industry, offering heavy discounts to lure customers away from market leader Meituan and No. 2 player Ele.me. Chinese regulators have repeatedly warned against excessive competition that has eaten into food-delivery companies' profit margins.

The Beijing-based company on Tuesday posted net profit of 5.10 billion yuan, equivalent to $750.6 million, for the first three months of the year. That compared with net profit of 10.89 billion yuan a year earlier, and reversed the 2.71 billion yuan net loss it recorded in the final quarter of 2025.

Adjusted net profit, which excludes share-based compensation and fair-value changes of long-term investments, among other items, was 7.38 billion yuan, down 42% from the previous year.

Revenue rose 4.9% to 315.69 billion yuan.

The results exceeded analysts' expectations. A FactSet consensus had estimated net profit of 3.53 billion yuan on revenue of 310.14 billion yuan for the quarter.

Write to Tracy Qu at tracy.qu@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 12, 2026 06:20 ET (10:20 GMT)