(Yicai Global) March 10 -- JD.Com’s shares tumbled after fourth-quarter revenue at China’s second-largest e-commerce company disappointed and it cautioned that the upturn in consumption still needs time to enter a full recovery.

JD.Com [HKG: 9618] ended down 11.5 percent at HKD158.70 (USD20.22) a share today. The stock has fallen almost 28 percent this year.

Revenue rose 7.1 percent to CNY295.4 billion (USD42.8 billion) in the three months ended Dec. 31, the Beijing-based company’s trading report showed yesterday. That compared with an average estimate by analysts for CNY296.17 billion, according to Refinitiv data, and was down from 23 percent growth a year earlier. Net income was CNY3 billion (USD400 million), versus a net loss of CNY5.2 billion a year ago. 

On JD.Com's earnings conference call yesterday, JD Retail Chief Executive Lei Xu said: “We see the recovery of consumption is underway and there are imbalanced pace here and there. So, it will need some time for recovery in full.

“We continue to keep our cautious optimism on the recovery, and we believe, in the second half of the year, the recovery speed will be better,” he added.

China's economy has continued to recover since the country eased Covid-19 controls at the end of last year and consumption began to gather pace during the Chinese New Year holiday in January. 

For the full year of 2022, JD.Com posted revenue of more than CNY1 trillion (USD140 billion) for the first time. Revenue rose 10 percent to CNY1.04 trillion from 2021 thanks to cost-cutting and steps to boost efficiency. Net profit was CNY10.4 billion (USD1.5 billion), compared with a net loss of CNY3.6 billion (USD516.3 million) in 2021.

JD.Com did not disclose specific data about the number of active users, but Xu noted that the overall user scale remained intact, while the number of active users grew in the double-digits last year.

The company earlier reported that the number of annual active users rose 6.5 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier.

With regard to 10 Billion Yuan, the shopping channel offering subsidies on products that JD.Com recently launched to compete with Pinduoduo, Xu said that the firm hopes the adjustments in marketing strategy will gradually guide users' consumption habits from stockpiling during promotional campaigns to purchasing daily at lower prices.

The marketing resources invested by JD.Com and merchants in the 10 Billion Yuan channel will reach about CNY1 billion in the first month, Xu added.

Editor: Futura Costaglione