(Yicai) June 18 -- JD.Com plans to step up innovation, launching six new projects in the short term, most notably a global stablecoin, after the Chinese e-commerce giant squandered the past five years, founder Richard Liu said.

Speaking at a media briefing yesterday, Liu admitted that over the past five years the Beijing-based company had failed to roll out any new business models, saw its market share slip, and had experienced slower growth, describing it as a “lost” period.

His comments come after JD.Com's revenue rose at the fastest pace in three years in the first quarter, thanks mainly to new initiatives such as its food delivery business, where it is challenging on-demand services titan Meituan. JD also completed the acquisition of a consumer finance firm last month, joining Baidu and Alibaba as the third Chinese internet giant to enter the sector.

Liu said the company aims to secure stablecoin licenses in all major currency jurisdictions to enable instant, low‑cost foreign exchange settlements between businesses, slash cross‑border payment costs by as much as 90 percent, and shorten transaction times to under 10 seconds. He did not disclose any details of the other five projects.

On April 27, JD.Com’s subsidiary Jingdong Coinlink Technology Hong Kong launched JD-HK, a compliant stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the Hong Kong dollar. JD-HK is the first stablecoin issued by a physical enterprise in Hong Kong.

Transborder e-commerce is not sustainable in the long run, so JD.Com’s international business strategy will instead focus on local e-commerce platforms, establishing local teams, selling only branded products, and sourcing and shipping locally, Liu also said.

JD.Com has signed agreements with 1,000 Chinese brands and plans to bring them overseas within the next five years, Liu said, adding hat its European infrastructure build‑out, already underway for three years, is slated to begin operations by year‑end.

On the subject of artificial intelligence and logistics, Liu explained that JD.com will retrain delivery staff to adapt to new technologies. As autonomous delivery vehicles proliferate, some couriers may transition to roles maintaining and servicing those robots.

Turning to JD.Com's competition with Meituan, Liu said that his company focuses more on the fresh food supply chain behind delivery services, and that it aims to create a business model entirely different from its rival’s.

JD.Com entered the food delivery market on March 1. By June 15, it already had more than 120,000 full-time delivery riders, with 3,000 to 4,000 new hires joining daily.

Editor: Futura Costaglione