JD.com's Revenue Fell 2.9%. We Checked the "First Since 2014" Claim Before Repeating It.

by Marcus Donnelly · August 14, 2026

Market Reaction Reporter, Earnings Dispatch

JD.com, Inc. — listed in the US as American depositary shares on Nasdaq under JD, and in Hong Kong under 9618 with an RMB counter at 89618 — reported second-quarter results on Thursday that turned an operating loss into an operating profit while showing net revenues going backwards. The ADSs closed Thursday at $29.30, down 7.31%, per StockAnalysis.com.

Net revenues were RMB346.4 billion for the second quarter of 2026, a decrease of 2.9% from RMB356.7 billion a year earlier, per the results release. Every growth rate here is calculated in renminbi. JD publishes convenience US dollar translations beside its RMB figures — RMB346.4 billion is shown as US$51.1 billion — and the two should not be mixed across periods.

The claim that spread fastest was that this is JD's first revenue decline since it went public in 2014, though the outlets do not word it identically. Benzinga wrote that "the decline marked JD.com's first quarterly revenue contraction since its 2014 listing." GuruFocus called it JD's first quarterly revenue decline since going public in 2014. Bloomberg Television's The China Show framed it more loosely, billing the segment as JD's first decline in over a decade. JD's own release makes none of these claims: it describes the change plainly as a 2.9% decrease.

So we went looking for exceptions. The thinnest quarters in JD's record are the obvious candidates, and each is positive in the company's own words: the first quarter of 2023 was "an increase of 1.4% from the first quarter of 2022," the third quarter of 2023 "an increase of 1.7% from the third quarter of 2022," and the second quarter of 2024 "an increase of 1.2% from the second quarter of 2023." JD's first-quarter 2026 release reports revenues up 4.9%, and StockAnalysis.com's annual series shows positive growth every year from 2012 through 2025. Nothing we could reach contradicts the superlative — but an annual series cannot by itself rule out a single negative quarter, and we did not re-read every quarterly release since the listing. It remains a claim carried by outlets, not one the company has asserted.

The composition is where the release is specific. Net product revenues fell 5.4% to RMB267.1 billion, which JD attributes primarily to a high base effect in the second quarter of 2025; net service revenues rose 6.8% to RMB79.3 billion. JD Retail revenue fell to RMB295.4 billion from RMB310.1 billion, JD Logistics rose 24.3% to RMB64.1 billion, and New Businesses — the bucket holding the food-delivery push — fell 47.6% to RMB7.3 billion.

That contraction is the same line that fixed the profit. New Businesses' operating loss narrowed to RMB9.9 billion from RMB14.8 billion. JD Retail's operating income was RMB13.5 billion against RMB13.9 billion, on a slightly wider 4.6% margin versus 4.5%; JD Logistics contributed RMB2.3 billion against RMB2.0 billion, though its margin narrowed to 3.5% from 3.8%.

Consolidated income from operations was RMB4.5 billion, against an operating loss of RMB0.9 billion a year earlier — a 1.3% margin versus negative 0.2%. Non-GAAP income from operations was RMB5.5 billion versus RMB0.9 billion. Net income attributable to ordinary shareholders was RMB7.1 billion, up from RMB6.2 billion; non-GAAP, RMB8.9 billion. Diluted net income per ADS was RMB5.01 GAAP and RMB6.29 non-GAAP.

Marketing spending fell 24.8% to RMB20.3 billion, which the release ties to optimisation of promotional spending on new business initiatives — the clearest marker of the retreat from the food-delivery subsidy war. R&D rose 37.7% to RMB7.3 billion, fulfilment rose 10.4% to RMB24.5 billion, and cost of revenues fell 4.3%, slightly faster than revenue.

"Our second quarter results reflect our resilient and high-quality operations. Despite near-term revenue headwinds, we achieved strong bottom-line growth, marking a clear inflection in our profit trajectory. This improvement was primarily driven by solid profitability in our core JD Retail business and continued narrowing of loss at JD Food Delivery," said chief executive Sandy Xu in the release. Chief financial officer Ian Su Shan opened with the same concession, saying JD delivered solid profitability "despite moderating top-line momentum," before adding that JD Retail's operating margin hit a record high for peak promotional seasons.

First-half operating cash flow was RMB51.1 billion and free cash flow RMB31.4 billion. JD repurchased about 69.9 million Class A ordinary shares — 34.9 million ADSs — for US$1.0 billion in the half, roughly 2.5% of the ordinary shares outstanding as of December 31, 2025, leaving US$1.0 billion of the US$5.0 billion authorisation adopted in August 2024.

Whether the quarter beat depends on whose consensus is used, and the providers disagree in a way currency alone does not explain. A summary published via Yahoo Finance put revenue of RMB346.4 billion above a RMB342.7 billion consensus and non-GAAP earnings of RMB6.29 per ADS above RMB5.63. Benzinga, working in dollars, described US$51.05 billion of revenue as short of a US$51.55 billion consensus, while calling adjusted net income of 93 cents per ADS a beat against 81 cents. Translated at the rate JD itself used to turn RMB346.4 billion into US$51.1 billion, Benzinga's dollar consensus implies a materially higher revenue bar than Yahoo's renminbi one. These are not one estimate in two currencies; they are different panels, and neither provider names its compiler.

The tape has been consistent about which line it cared about. Benzinga reported the ADSs down 3.42% at $30.53 in Thursday's pre-market ahead of the 7.31% close, and down 3.45% at $28.29 in Friday's pre-market. At 2:11 p.m. ET Friday, MarketScreener's real-time feed, sourced from Cboe BZX, showed $28.86, down 1.48% against Thursday's close, on a day range of $28.53 to $29.16 — an intraday price in a session still open. One note on the numbers circulating: GuruFocus's "stock tumbles 10%" headline refers to JD's Hong Kong line, not the Nasdaq ADSs.