JD.com - Earnings Call - Q4 2024

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Hello, and thank you for standing by for JD.com's fourth quarter and full year 2024 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After management's prepared remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. Today's conference is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. I would now like to turn the meeting over to your host for today's conference, Sean Zhang, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Sean Zhang (Director of Investor Relations)

Thank you. Good day, everyone. Welcome to JD.com's Q4 and full year 2024 earnings conference call. With us today is our CEO of JD.com, Ms. Sandy Xu. She will kick off the call with her opening remarks, and our CFO, Mr. Ian Shan, will discuss the financial results, and then we'll open the call to questions from analysts. Before turning the call over to Sandy, let me quickly cover the safe harbor. Please be reminded during this call, our comments and responses to your questions reflect management's view as of today only. We'll include forward-looking statements. Please refer to our latest safe harbor statement in the earnings press release on our website, which applies to this call. We'll discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. Please also refer to the reconciliation of non-GAAP measures to the comparable GAAP measures in the earnings press release.

Please also note all figures mentioned in this call are in RMB unless otherwise stated. Now, let me turn the call over to our CEO, Sandy.

Sandy Xu (CEO)

Thank you, Sean. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to discuss our Q4 and full year 2024 results. In Q4, we delivered a strong set of operational and financial results, with top-line growth accelerating back to double digits year-on-year and healthy bottom-line expansion, ending 2024 on a very strong note. On a full-year basis, our total revenues were up 7% year-on-year, outpacing the growth of both total retail sales and online physical goods, as reported by the NBS. As our market share expanded, we remained committed to our operating philosophy of lowering costs, increasing efficiency, and investing in user experience with a continued financial discipline. Full-year and Non-GAAP net profit for 2024 also expanded steadily, with Non-GAAP net margin hitting 4.1%. We continued to invest proactively from long-term growth while making solid progress towards our long-term profitability target.

We saw strong double-digit growth momentum across most of our categories and revenue streams in Q4, starting with our electronics and home appliances category, which saw a notable upswing, with revenues growing by a remarkable 16% year-on-year. Our unique advantages in supply chain, service capabilities, and user mind share continue to set us ahead in these categories. Heading into 2025, with the government's stimulus policies adding to the tailwind, we are well-positioned to benefit from this rebound in consumption. Besides the strong momentum in electronics and home appliances, I'm excited about another bright spot in our business. Our general merchandise continued its strong performance in Q4, with revenue growth accelerating to 11% year-on-year. With intensive efforts, we've invested in building the operating expertise and the massive market opportunities in both supermarket and fashion categories.

We believe our general merchandise is set to further expand user mind share and renew the impetus for our long-term growth when we look beyond the momentum in electronics and home appliances. Within general merchandise, our supermarket business revenues in Q4 were up double-digit year-on-year for four consecutive quarters in a row. This was partially due to the early start of the Chinese New Year promotion, but more importantly, driven by the de facto improvement in our supply chain capabilities in the supermarket category, ranging from selecting the right product mix, lowering procurement costs, to improving promotional and fulfillment efficiency. The supermarket category holds massive potentials for JD in the long run for both B2C e-commerce and on-demand retail, and we've just started to unlock it. Our fashion category is also generating better momentum thanks to our persistent efforts to improve operations and consumer mind share.

For example, consumers are more excited about our offerings, showing higher shopping frequency, and the merchants' enthusiasm towards the JD platform has also increased significantly. We will continue to invest in the area as it holds strategic importance for us, especially for further improving our user engagement and the marketplace ecosystem. Throughout the past year, our team stayed very focused on improving user growth and engagement, price competitiveness, and our platform ecosystem. The strong full-year results were consistent with the strategic focus that we have set out and are a reflection of our effective execution. Let me provide some updates on these key areas. First, on user growth and engagement, Q4 last year marked the fifth consecutive quarter of our quarterly active customers, seeing double-digit year-on-year growth, with growth accelerating further in the quarter. User behavior also trended up.

We saw user shopping frequency growing at double-digit year-on-year for four quarters in a row. The strong user metrics, even after the impact of the lower free shipping limit had fully lapsed, were a result of our increased low-price offerings and mix shift towards high-frequency SKUs in the supermarket and fashion categories. The healthy user momentum is keeping up so far in 2025, and we see a lot of user conversion and cross-sale opportunities. In terms of JD Plus, shopping frequency of Plus members grew even faster than that of our total users in Q4. Our focus on enhancing our service capabilities and value proposition for our Plus members remains unchanged.

In January, we announced further upgrades to Plus members' benefits, including a lifestyle service package that allows members to redeem credits for housekeeping services and a 180-day replacement over-repair policy for our 1P electronics and home appliance products in case of quality defects. We also expanded unlimited free shipping to cover on-demand shopping of 1P products for Plus members. Moving to price competitiveness, we've made substantial headway in 2024 by both improving price competitiveness for brand products and offering a broader selection of value-for-money products to address the needs of consumers across different income spectrums. In particular, in Q4 and on a full-year basis, we saw growth of order volume and user base in lower-tier markets, outpaced that of higher-tier markets on our platform.

Shifting to our platform ecosystem as we continue to bring in merchants and expand assortment of our supplies, both our 3P order volume and the number of our 3P users have maintained robust year-on-year increases over the past year, with Q4 further picking up the pace compared to previous quarters. NPS, the net promoter score of our 3P offerings, also continues to pick up in Q4, both year-on-year and on a sequential basis. As a result, our marketplace and marketing revenues were up 13% year-on-year in Q4, a substantial acceleration from previous quarters. To recap, we had a very productive year in 2024 with healthy expansion on both the top line and bottom lines, and effective execution of strategic priorities bringing about tangible results. On the back of our strong financial performance, we also delivered considerable returns to shareholders through both buybacks and our annual dividend.

Our total shareholder return rate for the year reached close to 10%. Ian will share more color on this. Our strong results reflect our commitment to drive lower cost, higher efficiency, and best-in-class user experience. And now, we are racing to adopt new technologies, especially AI and industrial robotics, to further automate many of our processes. For example, we already have AI applications in many of our work scenarios, such as AI marketing, AI customer service, developing superior algorithms for search and recommendations to increase traffic allocation efficiency, and AI-enabled streamlining of internal workflow, just to name a few. In particular, we have launched an AI shopping assistant called Jingyan, a chat box that helps users to get personalized search results and recommendations, find best deals and discounts, and compare products.

In addition, we always strive to improve our logistics automation level and have deployed proprietary industrial robotics in many key production segments in our fulfillment centers, which help to improve operation efficiency and safety of our employees and lower fulfillment costs for JD and the entire industry. We are confident that JD's business ecosystem offers a huge amount of user cases for AI adoption, which in turn will lead to further cost optimization, operating efficiency improvements, and ultimately give us more leeway to provide our users with a better experience. We remain confident in our business position and are increasingly optimistic heading into 2025. We expect to see better consumption trends driven by the pickup in domestic demand and operating efficiency and user experience improvement powered by AI adoption.

In addition, we see a compelling set of opportunities ahead of us, driven by the sustained momentum in user growth and engagement, the vast potential in general merchandise, and our progress in platform ecosystem building. Looking ahead, we remain committed to lowering costs, increasing efficiency, and improving user experience to deliver a sustainable growth in the long term. With that, I'll turn it over to Ian for our financial highlights. Thank you.

Ian Shan (CFO)

Thank you, Sandy, and hello everyone. In light of the steady rebound in China's macroeconomy and consumption trends, we had a very solid Q4 and 2024, with both top and bottom lines recording strong momentum. Particularly in Q4, revenues of both our electronics and home appliances and general merchandise categories returned to double-digit growth year-over-year.

Throughout 2024, we stayed focused on enhancing our unique supply chain capabilities to lower cost and drive efficiency, while continuing to make investment in user experience and user growth. We saw market share expansion across many of our categories, and both our gross margin and non-GAAP net margin continue to expand year-on-year in Q4 and for the full year of 2024. We are well on track to further strengthen our market position and move firmly towards our long-term profit target. While driving business growth, we continue to return value to shareholders. Our board has approved an annual cash dividend for 2024 of $0.50 per ordinary share or $1 per ADS, representing a 32% year-on-year increase on per share level. The aggregate amount is expected to be about $1.5 billion, which is subject to minor adjustments based on our total issued and outstanding shares by the record date.

In addition, we repurchased a total of 255 million Class A ordinary shares in 2024, equivalent to 128 million ADS, accounting for 8.1% of our shares outstanding as of the end of 2023. The increased annual dividend, combined with our ongoing $5 billion share repurchase program, reflects our commitment to retain value to shareholders, as we have strong conviction in JD's long-term success. Now, let's go through our Q4 and full-year 2024 financial performance. Our net revenues were up 13% year-on-year to RMB 347 billion in Q4, and up 7% year-on-year to RMB 1.2 trillion for the full year of 2024, of which product revenues were up 14% and 7% year-on-year for the quarter and full year, respectively. By category, electronics and home appliances revenues were up 16% year-on-year in Q4 and 5% for the full year.

As the government's stimulus policies continue to kick in, we are well positioned to fulfill the demands of consumers nationwide, both through online and offline channels. General merchandise revenues were up 11% year-on-year in Q4 and 9% for the full year of 2024, both representing a meaningful acceleration compared to respective previous periods. To break this down, supermarket revenues were up double-digit year-on-year both for Q4 and the full year of 2024, while the fashion category also gathered steam. This was driven by our persistent efforts to enhance operations and user experience, with enriched product supplies, better price, and more appealing service offerings. Looking ahead to 2025 and the long term, general merchandise will remain an important growth driver, with huge market potential and growing consumer mindshare. Service revenues grew, also accelerated to 11% year-on-year in Q4 and 8% for the full year of 2024.

Within service, marketplace and marketing were up 13% and 6% year-on-year, respectively, while logistics and other service were up 10% and 9% year-on-year for the quarter and the full year, respectively. It's worth noting that revenue growth of marketplace and marketing has sequentially accelerated every quarter in 2024, with both commission and advertising revenues recording double-digit growth year-on-year in Q4. It's a clear sign that our ecosystem is gaining traction among both our suppliers and merchants. Now, let's turn to our segment performance. JD Retail revenues were up 15% year-on-year in Q4 and 7% for the full year of 2024, led by solid performance across many of our key categories. JD Retail continued to see gross margin expansion year-on-year, a trajectory that has been sustained for the past 11 quarters in a row.

This strong track record has been primarily driven by the continued improvement of our supply chain capabilities and favorable mixed shifts towards higher margin revenue streams. JD Retail's gross profit expansion well exceeded the mild increase in operating expenses, particularly in marketing expense, as we invested in user growth and mindshare. As a result, its Non-GAAP operating income continued to increase year-on-year, both in Q4 and for the full year of 2024, with Non-GAAP operating margin reaching 3.3% and 4%, up 68 basis points and 24 basis points, respectively. Moving on to JD Logistics, JD Logistics revenues were up 10% year-on-year for both Q4 and the full year of 2024. Both JD Logistics' internal and external revenues saw double-digit year-on-year growth in Q4 and a similar growth pace for the full year 2024.

JD Logistics further optimized its logistics network, closely integrated smart technology, and increased the automation level of its operations to reduce cost and drive better efficiency. This led to a year-on-year increase in its non-GAAP operating income for both Q4 and the full year of 2024. JD Logistics' non-GAAP operating margin reached 3.5% for the quarter and on a full-year basis as well. In 2025, JD Logistics will further invest and enhance its capacity to handle increasing demand driven by the positive trends in both the macro condition and consumer confidence. We believe this proactive effort will set JD Logistics on a stronger footing for long-term development. Turning to new business, revenues of the segment saw a year-on-year decline of 31% in Q4 and 28% for the full year of 2024, largely due to Jingxi's business adjustment.

This widening non-GAAP operating loss was also attributable to Jingxi business, in line with our expectation as we further penetrated into lower-tier markets with expanded offering of value-for-money products. Lower-tier markets remains a priority for us in 2025, as we are becoming more confident in broadening our user base there, thanks to the progress we made in enhancing our product supplies and price competitiveness over the past year. On our consolidated profit performance, at the group level, gross margin increased to 15.3% in Q4 and 15.9% for the full year of 2024, up 110 basis points and 114 basis points, respectively. The increase was driven by both JD Retail's and JD Logistics' gross margin expansion. Non-GAAP net profit attributable to ordinary shareholders increased by 34% and 36% year-on-year in Q4 and for the full year of 2024, with non-GAAP net margin of 3.3% and 4.1%, respectively.

While we continue to allocate resources to improve user experience and foster future growth drivers throughout 2024, we did a good job in unleashing operating efficiency, upholding our financial discipline, and firmly moving towards our long-term profit target. Our free cash flow for the full year of 2024 was RMB 44 billion, compared to RMB 41 billion in 2023. This was driven by our enhanced profitability and moderated CapEx, partially offset by cash outflows to secure supplies of key categories, such as electronics and home appliances, to keep up with the increasing demand in recent quarters. By the end of Q4, our cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash and short-term investments, totaled RMB 241 billion. We are encouraged by our overall performance in 2024, with healthy expansions across both top and bottom lines.

This set of results was driven by effective execution of our strategies, disciplined investments, and adoption of technology, including AI and robotics. The improving macro environment and the solid groundwork we've built out give us confidence going into 2025, and we are optimistic for our healthy and sustainable growth over the long term. With that, I will turn it back to Sean. Thank you.

Sean Zhang (Director of Investor Relations)

Thank you, Yan. Okay, next for the Q&A session, you're welcome to ask questions in Chinese and English. Our management team will answer the questions in the language you ask. We'll provide English translation when necessary for convenience purposes only. In the case of any discrepancy, please refer to our management statement in the original language. Operator, we can open the call for a Q&A session.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. The question-and-answer session of this conference call will start in a moment.

In order to be fair to all callers who wish to ask questions, we take one question at a time from each caller. If you have more than one question, please request to join the question queue again after your first question has been addressed. If you wish to ask a question via the phone, you will need to press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. Your first question comes from Ronald Keung from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Ronald Keung (MD)

谢谢Sandy Xu和Sean Zhang。恭喜这个公司很强劲的业绩。那除了这个带电品类这个非常强的增长以外，那我们应该如何看待这个京东零售在今年25和26年的这个增长的一些驱动力？那对于京东商超，就这个JD Supermarket来讲，我们今年主要投入有哪些？那在另外呢，就国家这个延续了和扩大了这个宇宙换新项目。那25年呢，这个OneQ我们3C家电的这个增长，我们目前的趋势是怎样？那下半年如果面对这个高基数和需求这个弹性就可能开始下降，那我们公司会采取什么措施来巩固这个品类的市场地位？那让我翻译一下。Thank you, management, for taking my questions. So I want to ask how should we think about the JD growth drivers over this year and next year, mainly beyond the near-term strength in electronics and appliances? And we mentioned our supermarkets, so what are our investment priorities this year for the supermarket category?

And separately on the government expanded appliance trade-in programs, including electronics trade-in programs. So how has the electronics and appliances category grown, trended so far in the first quarter? And in face of the higher base from the second half, and maybe some of the diminishing demand elasticity from the program that started from September last year, how, what are we doing to solidify this category leadership? Thank you.

Ian Shan (CFO)

谢谢张导的问题。首先，在24年，我们包括带电品类还有日白品类，其实可以看到我们的主要品类都取得了不错的双位数增长。那虽然我们不同品类所处的行业环境不太一样，但是增长背后最核心的动力，我们认为还是京东始终在围绕着体验成本效率所做的长期投入所释放出来的增长的潜能，也将在未来继续给我们带来差异化的增长机会。 Thank you, Ronald, for your question. You can see in 2024, we achieved solid double-digit growth across most of our major categories, including electronics and home appliance and general merchandise. Although the industry landscape varies across these categories, the underlying growth driver is always JD long-term investment centered around user experience, cost, and efficiency, which continue to unleash significant growth potential and generate differentiated growth opportunity for JD in the future.

2025年呢，大家也知道国家继续在大力的推进和提振消费工作。那我们也将通过我们自身的供应链效率更好的服务来助力国家拉动消费所做出的努力。那同时我们在日白品类用户体验和增长平台生态等方向也会积极布局。那目前我们看也都取得了良好的进展。那我们相信在这些非电品类的这些努力和我们的这些驱动力在2025年以及未来将继续带动京东零售业务的增长。 In 2025, the government aims to continue its effort to boost consumption. We are very committed to contributing to government's effort by leveraging our own supply chain efficiency, superior customer service. At the same time, we are making proactive investment in general merchandise category, user experience, and user growth and platform ecosystem, which have already yielded some positive progress. We believe this driver will continue to propel growth, you know, of retail, of core retail business in 2025 and beyond. 对，在日白品类，我们主要是在强化我们自己团队的经营能力，以及用户的品类心智，在品类心智上面继续投入。那我们预计这个品类还将继续保持比较好的增长势头。然后在用户增长方面呢，那随着我们用户体验的提升，那季度购买用户数和购物频次其实在过去一年以的每个季度都保持了双位数增长。那我们也将进一步增强用户流量的精细化运营，来带动用户数和活跃度在今年继续保持健康增长的趋势。那另外在平台的生态方面，除了我们自营的心智不断增强，那用户对京东的3P模式的认可程度也在加深。那么在四季度，我们的3P购买用户数和订单量也在继续加速增长，那他们都快于我们零售的大盘增速。所以整个生态活跃度的提升呢，也为我们未来的可持续增长在蓄能。 So starting with general merchandise category, over the past period, we continuously improve on our operating capabilities and category mind share, especially in supermarket and fashion categories. So going forward, we expect general merchandise category to maintain strong growth momentum.

In terms of user growth, as our user experience continues to improve, both the number of QAC, the quarterly active customers, and shopping frequency have maintained double-digit growth in each quarter over the past year. We'll continue to fine-tune our user traffic operation to drive healthy growth in both our user base and user engagement this year. In platform ecosystem, you can see besides our market share in the mainstream user segment in our 1P direct sale business model continues to get stronger, our user recognition of JD 3P marketplace is also deepening. In Q4, the number of 3P active users and 3P order volume continue to accelerate, both outpacing the overall JD Retail segment growth. The improved ecosystem engagement is building a good momentum for us in terms of our long-term sustainable growth. 对，我再稍微展开补充一下，就是关于商超品类的供应链能力，或者说采销的品类经营能力。那么这里呢，是指具体是指说我们可以为用户提供覆盖更多价格带的性价比的好货。商超的几大重点品类，其实在过去几年，过去一年都有明显的能力提升，而这些品类的收入增速呢，也快于商超整体的增速。那接下来我们将提升更多的细分品类的供应链能力。那另外呢，我们也在大力的推进仓网变革和履约效率的提升，那继续和物流团队紧密配合来布局适合商超品类的仓网模式。那么在降低履约成本的同时，带动配送效率的提升。那整体来讲，商超的市场空间依然很大，那我们也有信心继续获得市场份额。 I want to provide more color on supermarket category.

So over the past few years, we have focused on improving the category operational capability and supply chain capabilities. And especially we'll further enhance our procurement and sales capabilities and category operation. Our goal is to provide users with more value for the money product across a broader price range. So we have seen notable improvement in some key subcategory within supermarket. Revenue growth have achieved, have outpaced overall growth of supermarket category in double digit. Going forward, we'll continue to improve the operational capability of these more subcategories. Also, advancing fulfillment network planning and efficiency improvement is a key. We'll continue to work closely with JD Logistics to develop fulfillment network model tailored to supermarket category to lower the fulfillment cost and improve delivery efficiency.

Sandy Xu (CEO)

关于第二个问题，从去年下半年开始，国家出台的这个各项消费提振政策，在我们看来的确取得了很积极的效果，那也带动了消费信心的逐步提升。那从年初至今，在我们平台上，我们的确也看到手机的需求是回暖的，因为这个手机是新放入以旧换新的品类范围内。那然后呢，电脑销售也依然保持比较强劲的增长态势。那家电呢，在今年早些时候的确受到24年底部分销售提前释放的短期影响，在叠加这个春节期间，有一点错期的影响。所以当我们看到3月份进入家装季，那我们也预计销售将继续环比呈现加速的趋势。 So since the second half of last year, the government introduced a series of consumption stimulating policies, and we have seen that the policies have driven a steady recovery in consumer confidence. So since the beginning of this year, we saw mobile phone demand has rebounded, and laptop PC sales remain very strong in JD, although home appliance sales early this year were temporarily affected as some of the sales were put forward to the end of 2024, but the sales of home appliance have shown a month-on-month acceleration in Q1. 然后关于这个市占提升的具体举措，那就如你所说，从去年下半年开始的确由于以旧换新政策对家电销售有比较强的拉动，会给整个行业带来比较高的基数。但我们的确也看到更多家电产业升级，行业结构向好的长期利好，那也看到家电以旧换新的潜在需求仍然是巨大的。那么从比例来看，去年以旧换新实现的销售量和我们存量家电比较起来还是非常小的一个比例。 On how to enhance our market share, so as you just mentioned, since the second half of last year, government consumption supporting policies have effectively boosted home appliance sales, which potentially creates a high base for the industry.

However, we see more long-term benefits of home appliance industry upgrade and positive structural change in the industry, as well as the vast potential demand unleashed by the trillion program of home appliance. It's worth noting that the unit volume sold compared to the total industry market size is still very limited, so we are very confident to continue consolidating and expanding our market share and market position. 一方面我们还会继续提升我们以旧换新的服务能力，让消费者享受到更好的以旧换新的体验，来激发用户换机升级的潜在需求。那同时呢，我们也将发挥我们的供应链优势，通过更多的渠道触达下沉市场的用户，来满足更多用户的升级换新的需求。那此外呢，我们也将继续通过用户洞察，致力于不断推动行业创新，来激发消费需求。 So on one hand, we'll enhance our trading service capabilities and provide consumers with better trading experience. We'll continue to stimulate potential demand for, you know, all the consumer goods upgrading. Additionally, we'll leverage our supply chain advantage to reach out to more users in low-tier markets through more channels, meeting their demand for trading services. Last but not least, we'll continue to leverage our deep user insight to drive innovation in the industry and stimulate consumer sentiment.

Sean Zhang (Director of Investor Relations)

We can take the next question. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Your next question comes from Kenneth Fong from UBS. Please go ahead.

Kenneth Fong (Analyst)

嘿，晚上好，Sandy，Ian，还有Sean，谢谢接受我的提问，也恭喜集团去年取得的非常亮丽的业绩。我们看到京东一直以来也是非常谨慎，还有高度关注这个ROI的投入的风格，让去年利润取得30%以上的增长。今年以来我们也看到京东在加大一些领域的投入，包括服装、集市零售等等。然后可以请管理层也分享一下我们未来不同板块的主要的策略以及投入的规模，然后管理层如何平衡增长以及投入对利润率带来的影响呢？接下来我也想追问一下，就是最近我们也看到我们宣布了开始招募品质餐饮的商家，也开始了提供这个零佣金的入驻。管理层也可以麻烦你分享一下，就是我们对集市零售的策略定位以及投入的水平，这个将如何影响集团的利润率呢？我继续翻译一下。 Congrats on the very strong set of results. In 2023, JD has been very prudent and ROI focused on investment that allow us to deliver a very robust over 30% year-on-year earnings growth. We noticed that JD have been stepping up investment in some areas like fashion, marketplace retail. So can management share with us the strategy and scale of this investment of this new initiative? How would management balance the growth and profitability for these investments? A follow-up question is on food delivery. I noticed that recently we have been onboarding new and high-quality catering merchants with a zero commission. So can management share with us the strategy, positioning, and scale of investment for instant retail, and how would the food delivery initiative affect our margin and profitability?

Sandy Xu (CEO)

Thank you. 谢谢Kenny。我们24年取得整体业务的健康增长，那也保持了对用户体验和核心竞争力的持续投入。那京东整体的业务基础和不同板块的市场定位均得到了加强。Thank you, Kenny, for your question. In 2024, we achieved healthy business growth and continued to invest in user experience and our core competitiveness. We saw stronger business fundamentals and market positions of our different segments. 京东的商业模式以供应链为基础，以用户体验为核心的投入也始终会围绕这两条主线，那进而带来规模增长、效率提升和利润增长，让我们可以持续投入于长期发展，形成正向循环。那同时呢，我们也在持续优化仓网及规划，通过路线和仓库布局的调整，然后持续投入自动化技术，降低整个行业的履约成本。这一点对商超继续提升盈利能力尤为重要。那目前不同业务板块所处的阶段不同，侧重点也有所差异。那具体来说，在相对成熟的带电品类上，将继续提升供应链效率和释放规模优势，带动利润的稳健提升。在日白品类中，我们在驱动商超保持快速增长的同时，继续改善利润。那如前面所说，仓网布局的优化是重要抓手之一。然后呢，在服装品类上，我们将继续投入，加强用户对京东服装的心智，并进一步提升服装的供应链能力，希望更多的用户可以了解和选择京东服装。在新业务的探索方面，那集市零售是京东核心零售业务的自然延伸，目前尚处于早期的阶段。那我们将投入更多的精力在探索差异化的业务模式和丰富优质供给方面。JD's business model is built on supply chain capabilities and centered around the user experience. Our investments will also focus on these two areas. This approach will further scale up our business, improve operating efficiency, and lead to profit expansion, which will enable us to invest in our long-term development, creating a virtuous cycle. At the same time, we will be continuously optimizing our fulfillment network by streamlining our transportation routes and layout of warehouses, and continuously investing in robotics technologies. We aim to reduce the fulfillment cost of the entire industry. This is particularly important for improving the profitability of our supermarket business.

Currently, our businesses and segments are at a different stage of development. Therefore, our priorities are different. For more established categories, such as electronics and home appliances, we will further optimize our supply chain efficiency and unleash scale benefits to drive steady profit improvement. Within the general merchandise category for supermarket, we are committed to driving robust growth momentum while at the same time continuing to improve its profitability. As just noted, fulfillment network optimization is important for supermarket profit improvement. For the apparel category, we will continue to work on user mind share and supply chain capabilities in order to gain awareness and preference among more users. In terms of our exploration in new businesses, on-demand retail is a natural extension of JD's core retail business. It is at an early stage now, and our focus is to explore differentiated business models and enrich our high-quality supplies.

长期健康可持续的增长和积极投入是相辅相成的。那今年我们会继续在核心业务和品类释放规模效应和供应链效率，带动利润提升。那同时京东过往的 track record 已经多次证明，我们会关注投入的效率和守财务纪律，这一点不会变。我们有信心朝着长期利润率目标稳步前进。 Long-term sustainable growth and proactive investment complement and support each other. In 2025, we will continue to leverage scale effects and supply chain efficiency in our core businesses and categories to drive profit improvement. Meanwhile, our track record has proved many times that our investments are ROI focused and follow stringent financial discipline. This approach will not change. We are confident to steadily progress towards our long-term margin target. 那我来回答第二个关于外卖的问题。那首先呢，我们零售的战略重点是没有改变的。那我建议大家不要单独的去思考集市零售或者外卖这个业务，而是要放在京东整体零售业务能力和服务体验上通盘考虑。那在集市零售包括外卖的投入，对于我们丰富消费场景打造能力，满足用户的需求和提升用户体验都有积极的效果。那从消费场景上来看，集市零售是核心零售业务的自然延伸。那外卖呢，也是集市零售场景下用户高频的业务之一，可以丰富我们服务用户需求的场景，提供更优质的供给，加强用户粘性活跃度，从而带来用户价值的提升。 This is Sandy. I'll answer your second question on food delivery and marketplace retail. So first and foremost, our strategic focus of retail business has never changed. I recommend that you not consider marketplace retail or food delivery as a standalone business. Instead, this should be viewed within the broader context of JD overall retail capability and service experience.

So our attempt in the on-demand retail, including food delivery, should have a positive impact on enriching our consumption use case, establishing capabilities, meeting our user diverse demand, and enhancing our user experience. In terms of consumption use case, on-demand retail is a natural extension of our core retail business, and food delivery is one of the high-frequency services within the on-demand retail business. It can enrich our user service touchpoint, provide higher quality offerings, so therefore enhance user stickiness and engagement on our platform, so in long term can increase our user value. 从能力上聚焦进一步复用和增强我们已有的履约配送的基础设施能力，可以更快更灵活的即时配送能力，是京东原有211高效履约网络和能力的有力补充。那我们的目标呢，是提升整体配送网络的效率。那核心零售核心电商业务，我们的即时零售业务都将受益。从用户的角度上，我们也看到用户对品质外卖的确有很强的需求。那么满足用户差异化的需求，可以进一步提升用户对京东的信赖度，与我们的核心电商业务的心智也是相辅相成的。 From the capability building perspective, we focus on further leveraging and enhancing our existing fulfillment and delivery infrastructure. The faster and more flexible on-demand delivery capability serves as a strong complement to JD's efficient 211 fulfillment network and ability. Our goal is to improve the overall efficiency of the delivery network.

Both our core e-commerce business and on-demand retail will benefit from this. From the user perspective, we have observed the demand from our user for high-quality food delivery services. So meeting users' differentiated needs can further reinforce their trust in JD, complementing user mind share of our core e-commerce business. 在投入的节奏和影响上呢，首先我们会聚焦更好的满足京东现有用户的需求，为他们提供更丰富的消费场景和供给，提升用户的频次和粘性。那我们也会凭借对食品安全的高度重视，来通过对品质商家的招募和扶持、骑手的权益完善等举措，来丰富优质的供给，逐步建立品质外卖这一差异化的用户心智。那在业务节奏上，我们将基于现有的电商的基础能力，进一步打造差异化的能力和业务模式。那目前还是相对比较早期的业务发展状态。那我们在有策略和纪律的尝试和投入，那我们也会根据业务逐步发展的情况来动态调整，也会及时跟大家沟通。长期看，我们的目标始终是提升股东价值和公司的盈利能力。 So regarding the pace and impact of our attempt in on-demand retail, first we'll prioritize serving JD existing user base through expanding consumption scenarios and supply diversity. Therefore, increasing purchase frequency and user stickiness. We have also observed the demand for high-quality food delivery. So with a stronger emphasis on food safety, we target to enrich supply for high-quality chain restaurant by recruiting and supporting premium merchants, enhancing delivery riders' welfare. This initiative will gradually establish a differentiated user mind share of high-quality food delivery.

In terms of pace of the business, we'll further develop differentiated capabilities and business models based on our existing e-commerce infrastructure. For food delivery, it's still in a very early exploration stage. We are making strategic and disciplined experiments and investments, so we'll retain flexibility to adjust our approach as the business evolves, and we'll provide updates to investors and analysts in a timely manner, but we believe in the long term, our objective has always been enhancing shareholder value and the company profitability.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. We can take the next question.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Jialong Shi from Nomura. Please go ahead.

Jialong Shi (MD, Head of China Internet Research)

Thanks. Sandy Xu和 Xiang，非常感谢接受我的提问。然后我是想请教一下，就是关于 AI，我们看到许多互联网公司其实都已经比较积极广泛地部署这个 DeepSeek，这个 large language model。所以想请教一下管理层能不能分享一下京东在这个 AI 这个方面的战略。我们京东公司是不是已经或者是计划在自己的业务中部署这个大模型？我们该如何展望 AI 的这个部署在短期和长期，长期对我们业务能够产生的影响？我自己翻译一下。DeepSeek large language model has been widely deployed by many Chinese internet companies.

Just wondering what JD strategy on AI, and has JD deployed or plan to deploy large language model to any of your business? What impact should we expect from AI deployment in the near and the long term? Thank you. 谢谢Jialong，非常好的问题。那京东一直都持续通过技术驱动业务创新来提升效率和帮助成本下降。那我们目前也已经在很多业务场景上都广泛地应用 AI 技术。那不仅仅有公司自上而下的推动和激励，那也有很多都是员工自下而上发起使用的。

Ian Shan (CFO)

Hi Jialong, that's a very good question. So JD.com has always been active, driving for business innovation, efficiency improvement, and cost reduction through technology. We have widely adopted AI technology across various business scenarios, which is driven not only by the top-down initiative from the company, but also the bottom-up adoption and utilization by our employees. 因为我们业务模式的特点，其实京东在供应链上面会做得更深入，所以我们有更多供应链的 know-how 和经营数据，以及更丰富的零售和供应链的应用场景。那我们在积极地通过 AI 技术去帮助我们提升成本效率体验的最佳组合。那我举几个例子，比如说在核心的零售场景上，那首先在面向用户提升体验的方面，那我们通过 AI 也是重塑了我们的搜索和推荐体系，让搜索的满意度和流量分发效率来实现有效的提升。那此外我们也推出了 AI 的导购助手Jingyan，以及 AI 的数字人来为用户提供更全面的产品信息和专业建议，降低了查找和选择商品的成本。 So due to our differentiated business model, we have a deeper knowledge in supply chain.

So our active AI adoption is leveraging this in-depth supply chain know-how and our operational data, as well as more diverse retail and supply chain use case. So just give you some example on the user front to enhance user experience. We have restructured search and recommendation system for JD Retail through AI, which resulted in increasing search result satisfaction and traffic distribution efficiency. Additionally, we have launched AI shopping assistant called Jingyan and AI Avatar to provide users with more comprehensive product information, professional recommendations, therefore lower the cost of search and select product for them. 所以在给商家提供的工具方面，我们也围绕商品发布、订单管理、售后客服、数据分析这些方面，帮商家提供了比如 7x24 小时的 AI 经营代理服务和经营助手工具，包括销量预测、AI 的营销投放、AIGC 内容的生成平台、AI 定价、AI 客服等等功能，来帮助商家去提升经营效率，降低成本。 So in terms of helping merchants, providing tools for merchants, we have provided 24x7 AI powered operation agency service and AI assistant tools for merchants, covering the entire process from product launch, order management, after-sale service, customer support to data analysis.

Our AI tools include sales forecasting, AI marketing campaigns, AIGC platform for marketing content, AI pricing, AI customer service, and more. So these tools are helping our merchants enhance their operation efficiency and reduce costs. 然后在供应链的管理和履约环节上，AI 算法也可以帮助我们提升需求和供给匹配的精准度，并且帮助我们提升物流的自动化水平。在物流在履约中心的多个关键的生产环节，都可以帮助我们提升机器人的自动化水平，降低京东和整个行业的履约成本。 So in terms of our supply chain management fulfillment, our AI algorithm is improving the accuracy of matching demand and supply, and we also continue to increase the logistics automation level. We have deployed proprietary industrial robotics in many of the key production segments in our fulfillment center to improve operating efficiency and lower fulfillment costs for JD and the entire industry. 当然团队在各种日常工作场景和流程中也在非常主动地广泛应用 AI 来带动效率的提升，类似在内容的审核、员工报销等具体的工作流程上来通过 AI 释放人力工作。那另外研发人员也可以通过智能编程助手来更高效地编写、阅读和优化代码，来帮助研发提效，从而更有效地服务我们的用户。那这些 AI 的创新和应用，我们认为其实还很多方面都是刚刚开始，还未来会有更多的工具和应用呈现出来。那么现在 AI 正在京东整体业务中发挥着越来越重要的价值，在长期帮助我们持续提升用户体验，持续为业务带来增长和效率的提升。 Also at the same time, our team is extensively integrating, proactively integrating AI into various daily workflows and processes to boost efficiency and reduce costs.

For example, AI has significantly enhanced productivity in specific workflows such as short video content reviews and employee reimbursement. Also our developers are leveraging AI programming assistants to compile, read, and optimize coding more efficiently. So these AI and technology innovation and applications, we are just started with this AI and technology innovation applications. There are many more to come, and AI is playing an increasingly important role within JD's overall operation, consistently enhancing user experience, driving growth, and improved efficiency over the long term.

Sean Zhang (Director of Investor Relations)

Thank you. Next question, please.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Your next question comes from Alicia Yap from Citigroup. Please go ahead.

Alicia Yap (Head of China Internet, IT Services)

Thank you. 晚上好，Sandy Xu 也恭喜这个强劲的业绩。我有两个小问题，一个就是想请公司帮忙我们梳理一下，我们该如何思考 25 年京东带电品类和日百品类的同比增长。然后第二个问题也想管理层再分享一下我们股东回报最新的一个情况怎么想。我自己翻译一下 how should we think about the year-over-year growth rate for the electronics category versus the year-over-year growth rate for your general merchandise category for 2025?

Second question is, can management update us on JD's latest shareholder return progress and the thinking? Thank you.

Sandy Xu (CEO)

谢谢 Alicia。首先京东发展到现在已经是成熟的全品类平台，那在带电品类和日百品类上都建立了很强的用户心智和差异化的竞争壁垒。那不同品类所处的行业也有不同的增长和发展趋势。在京东零售大盘里，都通过各自在产品价格服务的持续提升，为用户提供更好的体验，那带动用户对整个京东平台的信赖和心智。Q4 带电和日百收入的均加速到双位数增长，然后我们的用户增长服务收入也都达到了双位数的增长，然后充分体现了这一点。 Thank you, Alicia, for your questions. First, over the years of development, JD has become a well-established e-commerce platform that covers all kinds of categories. We have built user mind share and differentiated competitive edge for both electronics and home appliances and general merchandise categories. Different categories are also subject to different growth and development trends within their respective industries. For JD Retail business, through each category's joint efforts to improve product offerings, price competitiveness, and providing better service to users, the JD platform as a whole will have stronger user trust and mind share. Our Q4 results speak a lot about what I just said.

In the quarter, we saw double-digit growth across revenues of electronics and home appliances, also revenues of general merchandise, and our quarterly active customers, as well as our service revenues. 在今年带电品类上，我们会凭借供应链的差异化能力和用户心智的优势来服务更多用户，提升用户体验，持续获得市场份额。那当然下半年家电会有一定的高基数的影响，而在商超、服装、家居、家装等日用品类，那估计今年收入会继续保持快速增长的势头，那成为今年以及未来重要的增长驱动力。 In 2025, in terms of electronics and home appliance category, with our differentiated strength in supply chain and user mind share, we will be able to serve more users, improve user experience, and continue to gain market share, while it's expected that this category will see certain high base impact in the second half of the year. For general merchandise category, such as supermarkets, fashion products, and home goods, we expect its robust growth momentum to sustain in 2025. General merchandise will be our important growth driver for this year and going forward. 最后京东的增长是多元驱动的，用户增长、平台生态的发展，然后还有我们在品类和新业务的探索，都让我们看到增长机会，为我们长期可持续增长助力。 In addition, JD has multiple growth drivers.

We see opportunities in our user base expansion, platform ecosystem development, and our explorations in categories and new businesses. These will help to fuel our long-term sustainable growth. 关于股东回报，2024年我们坚定地通过分红还有回购等方式回馈股东，主要得益于我们业务健康度和盈利能力的提升。2023年股利总额约12亿美金，我们刚刚也宣布了2024年的现金股利总额为15亿美金，每ADS达到$1，每股股利同比增长32%。2024年我们也加速了股票回购，全年回购总金额达到36亿美金，净减少了流通在外股数8.1%。在2025年我们会继续坚定地回馈股东，回购方面我们现有现行的50亿美金的总额度的回购计划，会按照计划在三年内使用。股利方面我们会继续执行年度现金股利政策，这也体现了我们对京东长期发展前景的信心。 In terms of shareholder return, in 2024, we were committed to returning value to our shareholders through both dividend and buyback. This was mainly attributable to our healthy business progress and profit expansion. To recall, our annual dividend for the year of 2023 was $1.2 billion in aggregate amount, and we just announced that the annual dividend for the year of 2024 would increase to around $1.5 billion, which translates to $1 per ADS, representing 32% year-on-year increase on per share level. In addition to that, we also accelerated share buybacks in 2024. We bought back 8.1% of our outstanding shares for a total amount of $3.6 billion.

In 2025, we will remain committed to shareholder return. For the buyback, our ongoing $5 billion share buyback program will be fully used in three years as planned. For dividend, we will continue to follow our annual cash dividend policy. This demonstrates our confidence in JD's long-term development.

Sean Zhang (Director of Investor Relations)

Okay, thank you. Next question, please.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. Your next question comes from Thomas Chung from Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Thomas Chong (MD, Regional Head of Internet and Media)

晚上好，谢谢管理层接受我的提问，恭喜很强劲的业绩。我第一个问题是关于春节以来，以旧换新、补贴家电，还有手机的表现都非常不错，然后我们看到零售的数据也是符合预期。请管理层可不可以分享一下我们看到最近政策还有消费情绪的一个变化？我第一个问题是关于我们2025年盈利的展望，还有就是未来几年我们看利润率的一些想法。 Thanks, Management, for taking my questions. My first congratulations on a strong set of results. My first question is that we have been seeing a performance for trade-in programs and subsidies for home appliances and smartphones is doing very well during the Chinese New Year. On the other hand, the retail sales data also meets expectations. Can Management share your thoughts about the latest policies as well as the trend in consumer sentiment?

My second question is about 2025 earnings outlook as well as the margin trend over the next few years. Thank you.

Ian Shan (CFO)

谢谢, Thomas。政策层面相信大家也都很熟悉了。那么在昨天的政府工作报告中，我们也看到的确也把提振消费放在了更加突出的位置。那么继续支持消费品的以旧换新。那今年初的多项数据也显示消费市场正在继续呈现平稳增长的态势，这个包括春节期间零售行业的销售表现等。那么从京东的平台角度，我们的确也看到政策支持带来了消费需求的提振。那四季度的数据大家也都看到了，我就不再重复了。那么短期从宏观层面看，我觉得依然还是会有一定的挑战，但是长期看我们对消费情绪还是乐观的。那我们的消费市场本身韧性强，潜力大。那近期国家出台的各项政策也会持续发力，并最终传导到用户，逐步带动居民消费能力和消费意愿的提升，也将给我们提供很大的增长空间。 Thank you, Thomas. As you have noticed, the government has launched many supportive policies, and especially in yesterday's government work report, several economic goals were mentioned with a heightened emphasis on boosting consumption, particularly emphasizing on continuing the consumer trade-in program. So also early this year, several indicators suggest that the consumer market has continued to show steady growth. So we have on JD, we have also seen very similar improved consumer demand momentum. So while in short term, we believe there are still challenges on the macro side, but in the long term, we remain very optimistic about consumer sentiment. As you know, China's consumption market is resilient with huge potential.

The recent policies launched by the government will continue to take effect and ultimately reach out to consumers and gradually boost their purchasing power and willingness to spend, which will provide us with significant growth opportunity. 关于未来几年利润率，首先关于2025年，我们将继续在核心品类提升供应链效率，带动利润提升。同时继续保持为长期增长做积极的和有纪律的投入。关于长期利润率，上次也跟大家沟通，京东的长期利润率目标会达到高个位数。去年我们利润的稳步改善让我们更坚定了这个目标。同时我们也看到了盈利能力在未来还有很大的提升空间. In terms of our future profit performance, first of all, for 2025, we will continue to improve our supply chain efficiency in core categories to unlock our potential in profit expansion. At the same time, we will continue to invest in our long-term growth with financial discipline. In terms of our long-term margin target, as we shared before, we believe it will reach a high single digit level over time. Our steady profit expansion last year made us more confident in achieving this target. It also showed that we have great room to further improve our profit performance.

未来几年我们会持续聚焦通过供应链效率提升带动利润率的稳步提升。具体来说，自营会带来供应链效率的提升。京东集团毛利率在过往的11个季度继续保持同比提升，核心来自商品毛利率提升以及物流的降本增效。我们相信通过不断提升的供应链效率带动产业链来降本增效，更好地服务合作伙伴和用户，同时也会自然带动我们利润的改善。同时在品类提升上，包括商超在内的很多品类的利润率仍有较大的提升空间，而且相对成熟的带电品类的利润率也有提升空间。最后3P占比也会提升，随着3P业务在长期占比不断提高，也将带动利润率的持续提升。 In the next few years, we will continue to focus on improving our supply chain efficiency to drive steady margin expansion. Specifically, our 1P business model will help to improve our supply chain efficiency. JD's gross margin has been going up for 11 quarters in a row. This is mainly attributable to the increase in our product sales gross margin and JD Logistics' optimization in cost and efficiency. We believe that as we continue to increase our supply chain efficiency, it will help to further reduce cost and enhance efficiency across the entire industry chain. This will not only enable us to better serve our business partners and users, but also lead to improvement in our profitability. In terms of better margin performance of different categories, we believe many of our categories, including supermarkets, still have a lot of room to further uplift their margins.

Even for more established categories, such as electronics and home appliances, there is room for further improvement as well. Finally, in terms of a mix of 3P versus 1P, as the proportion of our 3P business steadily goes up over time, it will also benefit our margin performance. We are now approaching the end of the conference call. I will now turn the call over to JD.com's Sean Zhang for closing remarks.

Sean Zhang (Director of Investor Relations)

Thank you for joining us on the call today, and thanks for your questions. If you have further questions, please contact me and our team. We appreciate your interest in JD.com and look forward to talking to you again next quarter. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This concludes the presentation. You may now disconnect. Good day.