China’s second-largest e-commerce company JD.com finally sets its eyes on Europe and is aiming for an office in Germany by the end of this year, its CEO told a German newspaper, according to a Reuters report Monday.
Richard Liu, the company’s CEO, told daily newspaper Handelsblatt that JD.com intends to move from “selling products from Germany in China” to “selling products in Europe”, while adding that details are being finalised.
Liu is also not ruling out takeovers, while claiming that the company has finalised its expansion strategy to enter Europe by the end of this year, making the affluent yet tough market its third international market, after Southeast Asia and the U.S., which the Beijing-based ecommerce company expressed in January an interest to enter.
The Beijing-headquartered company began operations in Southeast Asia close to three years ago through its Indonesian affiliate Jd.co.id. Recently, it announced a flurry of plans in Southeast Asia, that would pit it against Alibaba-owned Lazada and Amazon in the region.
It struck a US$500 million joint venture with top Thai retailer Central Group in September last year, with the Thai operaion (jd.co.th) currently in soft launch and slated to open in August this year.
In Vietnam, it led an undisclosed Series C investment in Tiki, one of the country’s key and fastest growing e-commerce companies, in a deal that saw JD become one of Tiki’s largest shareholders in January this year.
E-commerce companies such as Alibaba, Amazon and JD have been expanding into Southeast Asia in recent years in view of the region’s growing potential.
Alibaba made a US$2 billion investment in the Singapore-based Lazada in March this year that saw the company increasing its stake to 83 per cent from 51 per cent in 2016.
US retailer Amazon announced in July last year the launch of its Prime delivery services in Singapore , its only base in Southeast Asia. It has recently announced plans in March this year to expand to the Vietnamese market through a partnership with the country’s association of e-commerce merchants.
The region’s fast growing e-commerce market is expected to hit US$88.1 billion in 2025, according to a joint report by Google and Singapore’s state investor Temasek.
Editor: Ben Jiang