Original title: This time, JD "won" Ali
Recently, JD Group and Alibaba Group released their latest financial reports respectively. In the first quarter, JD Group's revenue reached 260 billion yuan (about $36 billion), up 7% year on year, and the growth rate was further improved. At the same time, the net profit attributable to common shareholders of listed companies under non US GAAP was 8.9 billion yuan (about 1.2 billion US dollars), up 17.2% year on year.
Compared with the bright performance of JD's financial report, Alibaba's latest Q4 and full year performance in fiscal year 2024, although the revenue returns to the growth track, Q4 revenue in fiscal year 2024 (the first quarter of 2024) is 221.874 billion yuan, up 7% year on year, but the net profit is only 919 million yuan, down 96% year on year. Ali said that this was mainly due to the increased investment in e-commerce business, the retention incentive granted to new employees, and the decline in the market value of the listed companies invested.
Although the year-on-year growth rate of revenue was 7%, the growth of net profit exceeded market expectations and fell off the "ankle". It can be seen that in the face of the accelerated evolution of e-commerce market pattern and the diversification of consumer shopping channels, JD, which made changes earlier, tasted the fruits of firm implementation of the "low price mentality", and at the end of last year, "changed the blood" of Taotian's core business management team, Alibaba, which clearly "returns to the customer value track", still needs to pay more.
"We are very happy to start this year with a steady performance in the first quarter. 2024 is a year of implementation, and we see that all businesses have achieved tangible results." Xu Ran, CEO of JD Group, said in the financial report conference call. Previously, she positioned 2023 as a "year of adjustment".
According to the financial report, JD has made many major adjustments at the business level in the past year, including the launch of "10 billion subsidies" and "9 yuan and 9 package mail" channels, large-scale low price subsidies, lowering the threshold for package mail, investing heavily in content ecology, and constantly upgrading the "Chunxiao Plan" to attract new businesses. In the first quarter of this year, it also continued to consolidate the "low price+quality" approach: joint 3C digital, home appliances, cars and other categories of partners to invest 6.5 billion yuan in trade in services; On the basis of 90% of third-party goods, continue to optimize the open platform package rules, and popularize the package of up to 59 yuan for other third-party goods; The instant retail business brand was upgraded to "Jingdong Second Delivery", reducing the threshold of free transportation to 29 yuan
Through continuous optimization of user experience, JD's user indicators in the first quarter have improved significantly. The number of quarterly active users has maintained a double-digit accelerated growth year-on-year for two consecutive quarters, and the number of users' shopping frequency, NPS (net recommended value) and low-end city users are significantly increasing. It can be seen that JD, which is celebrating the tenth anniversary of its listing on NASDAQ, is singing a "new signal" of growth, and the healthy low price strategy explored in the past two years has worked.
However, Alibaba, which has undergone the most drastic changes in the past year, has shown a situation of "increasing income without increasing profits", and can only continue to suffer from the previous indifference to real customers. Backward Alibaba must make bold reforms, accelerate the implementation of "good goods, good prices, and good services", "increase investment in improving the core user experience to support Taotian Group to regain growth and stabilize its market leadership", and the cost is bound to be huge. It must also pave the way for future growth by sacrificing gross profit rate.
However, through the online first use, pay later, refund only function, plus 10 billion subsidies, promoting Xinjiang package mail and delivery into the village, the rights of 88VIP members were upgraded, "6 · 18" was the first to cancel pre-sales, and Taotian's investment in user first and experience enhancement was also splashed in the financial report.
According to the financial report, in the first quarter of 2024, the number of GMV and orders of Taotian Group achieved a double-digit growth year on year, the revenue increased by 4% year on year, and the number of 88VIP members exceeded 35 million, a double-digit growth year on year. Wu Yongming, CEO of Alibaba Group and Chairman of Taotian Group, said at the latest financial report analysis meeting: "This quarter's performance shows that our strategy is working, and Alibaba is returning to the growth track. For this year, our priority is still to improve the consumer experience, and drive the growth of GMV through the improvement of consumer experience."
However, judging from the first quarter's financial report, it is not only JD that "won" Ali, but Pinduoduo continues to stand out and leave Ali far behind. On May 22, Pinduoduo Group released its performance report for the first quarter of 2024, which showed that its realized revenue in the first quarter was 86.8 billion yuan, up 131% year on year, and the net profit attributable to Pinduoduo's common shareholders under non US general accounting standards was 30.6018 billion yuan, up 202% year on year. With the release of the financial report, Pinduoduo's market value also surpassed Alibaba once again.
In addition to traditional e-commerce colleagues, the potential power of various content platforms to transform into e-commerce is also around. The growth rate of platforms such as Tiaoyin and Fasthand is also far greater than that of Taotian. Alibaba, whose market share is facing further "encirclement", seems to have little time left for it to find its own pace of development and grasp the growth opportunities facing the future. (Reporter Li Zichen)
