Deep Cuts Planned at China’s JD.com

Customers in Beijing used JDPay electronic payment apps on their smartphones last year to pay at a 7FRESH grocery store operated by JD.com. Photo: AP

Juro Osawa

and

Yunan Zhang

Chinese online retail giant JD.com is working on a substantial round of layoffs that could slash the workforce of some teams by half, according to people briefed on the matter.

In total, JD.com could cut up to 8% of its 150,000-plus workforce, or more than 12,000 jobs, according to investors in the Nasdaq-listed company. While it isn’t clear how the layoffs will be distributed, the cuts are expected to affect teams at the company’s Beijing headquarters, as well as JD.com’s massive delivery and warehouse staff, one of the people said. It would be an unprecedented move for one of China’s biggest tech companies whose revenue last year stood at $67 billion.