JD.com's food delivery service captured 15% of the market share in one year, with net profit declining nearly 30% in the first three quarters of the previous year.

On February 28, JD.com (9618.HK) published a post sharing a range of data marking the one-year anniversary of its JD.com Food delivery operations.

JD.com said that over the past year, we went from strictly reviewing merchants’ qualifications, to being the first to roll out the “dine-in” label, to disinfecting meal boxes and warming them, and then to launching “Fresh Hema Kitchen” as a key initiative focused on fresh stir-fried dishes, including live-streams from the back kitchen and the disclosure of branded ingredients. This year, we rejected 1 million “black takeaway” stores, secured more than 240 million orders from users, and achieved a delivery market share of over 15%. JD.com hopes that by 2026, JD.com Food’s market share will reach 30%.

Fresh Hema Kitchen is a key project launched last year by JD.com Food. For this project, JD.com said that it drives merchant growth through an innovation-driven model within the industry. Last year we rolled out “0 commission”; going forward, we will also implement a long-term low-commission policy of no more than 5%, so that merchants can put the money into improving their dishes. After each Fresh Hema Kitchen location has been open for three months, the daily average order volume exceeds 500 orders, while also driving traffic and growth for nearby dining businesses.

JD.com plans to accelerate the expansion of Fresh Hema Kitchen in 2026, expanding comprehensively into in-store pickup and group-buying business. By the end of this year, it will cover all first- and second-tier cities nationwide. The in-store group-buying business is also expected to launch nationwide soon, with the first batch covering 1 million high-quality restaurants.

In addition, JD.com also released data regarding delivery riders. JD.com said that over the past year, 150k full-time riders joined JD.com, and it added that over the next five years it will invest 22 billion yuan to build 150k “brother home” sets.

In February last year, JD.com announced in a high-profile manner its entry into the food delivery market, with two policies—“0 commission for merchants” and riders fully paying into five types of social insurance and one housing fund—quickly attracting merchants and riders to onboard. In July last year, JD.com officially announced the launch of Fresh Hema Kitchen. The model was evaluated by the media as JD.com’s self-operated cooking approach.

However, JD.com’s entry prompted follow-on action from two other major delivery giants—Meituan (3690.HK) and Taobao—thereby triggering a three-party subsidy war in the food delivery market.

According to the latest released third-quarter financial results for last year, the sales and marketing expenses of the three platforms surged, with most of the spending “burned” into the delivery war. Among them, Meituan’s marketing expenditures in the third quarter were 34.3 billion yuan, up 90.9% year over year; Alibaba (9988.HK)’s sales and marketing expenses were 150k yuan, up 104.8%. JD.com’s marketing spending also increased to 21.1 billion yuan in the third quarter, up 110.5% year over year.

The delivery war severely damaged the performance of the three platforms. The fiercest period of the delivery war was the third quarter of last year, when Meituan’s adjusted net loss reached 16 billion yuan, the largest quarter of losses since its listing. Alibaba’s second fiscal quarter of FY2026 (July–September) saw net profit attributable to ordinary shareholders of 20.99 billion yuan, down 52% year over year; operating profit was 150k yuan, down 85% year over year. JD.com’s net profit attributable to ordinary shareholders was 5.3 billion yuan, down 55% year over year; adjusted net profit attributable to ordinary shareholders was 5.8 billion yuan, down 56% year over year.

Meituan posted losses of 8.21 billion yuan in the first three quarters of 2025, turning from profit to loss compared with last year, while JD.com’s net profit in the first three quarters of 2025 was 22.34 billion yuan, down 29.08% year over year. Alibaba posted 74.97 billion yuan in the first three quarters of 2025, up 9.5% year over year.

However, the heat of the delivery war has already drawn attention from regulators. In May last year, the market supervision bureau held talks with platforms including JD.com, Meituan, and Taobao. In August last year, the three major platforms Meituan, Taobao, and JD.com issued statements, reverting from “competing on price” back to “competing on quality” and “competing on service,” to promote a balanced development of food delivery and dine-in dining, build a rational and sustainable business environment, and strive to improve the level of protection for riders’ rights and interests.