This article only represents the author's own views.
After promising to boost its third-party merchant partners through a 10 billion yuan ($1.45 billion) subsidy program last month, No. 2 e-commerce firm JD.com Inc. (JD.US; 9618.HK) began “showing them the money” with the program’s launch on March 6. It certainly has the cash to spare, after announcing better-than-expected results last week that showed its revenue rose 10% last year to just crack the 1 trillion yuan mark. Its non-GAAP net profit jumped by an even higher 64% for the year to 28.2 billion yuan.
But all was not peaches and cream for the e-commerce giant, as CEO Xu Lei said that despite China ending most of its strict Covid restrictions, a broader recovery for the country’s battered retail sector hinges on consumer confidence that is still quite weak. With time still needed for a number of government stimulus measures to take effect, he added, the market might remain weak in the first half of this year and not improve notably until second half.