When JD.com filed to go public, it had 24,412 couriers of its own. Most Chinese online stores handed parcels to outside delivery firms. JD built 86 warehouses and 1,620 delivery stations across China so it could control every step from shelf to door. Richard Liu started the business in 1998 as a shop selling electronics in Beijing. By its 2014 IPO, it was the largest direct online retailer in China and a rival to Alibaba.

From Market Stall to Warehouses

Liu began by selling electronics and home appliances, and he moved the business online after the SARS outbreak kept shoppers home. JD added general merchandise at the end of 2008, then clothing, groceries and books, and opened a marketplace for outside sellers in 2010. The bet was that buyers in China would pay for genuine goods and fast, reliable delivery. That meant owning the trucks, the warehouses and the people. Liu kept 83.7 percent of the voting power.

A Tencent Deal, Then Nasdaq

JD.com priced its ADSs at $19 in May 2014 and listed on Nasdaq as JD, raising about $1.8 billion. Tencent had taken a stake weeks earlier and folded its own e-commerce sites into JD. The stock rose in its debut. JD went on to build one of the largest logistics networks in the world, and it added a second listing in Hong Kong in 2020. It remains public in New York and Hong Kong.

Cover: The Small Courier, Albrecht Dürer. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for a galloping courier (JD's own delivery force).