JD.COM Inc., China’s second-largest e-commerce site by sales, reported a 61 percent year-on-year rise in quarterly revenue, topping expectations, powered by a jump in the number of shoppers and goods bought on its platform.

    The group’s second-quarter revenue of 45.9 billion yuan (US$7.4 billion) exceeded an average estimate of 44.45 billion yuan, according to a Thomson Reuters poll of 14 analysts.

    But the company’s growth rate is expected to slow in the third quarter. JD.com said it sees third-quarter revenue of between 43.2 and 44.7 billion yuan, which would be up 49 to 54 percent from the previous year.

    JD.com, a distant rival to Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., is investing heavily in its offline operations to complement its Internet platform, taking activities like warehousing and deliveries into its own hands.

    This business model, similar in style to Amazon.com Inc.’s, takes its toll and the company made a net loss of 510.4 million yuan, shrinking only slightly from the previous year’s 583 million yuan despite the leap in revenue.

    The catalyst for that jump was the 118 million annual active customer accounts on JD.com in the 12 months ended June 30, up 72 percent from the same period a year earlier.

    Those customers drove an 82 percent jump in the total value of products sold on the company’s platforms in the quarter, to a total of 114.5 billion yuan.

    JD.com also said it will buy 10 percent of Chinese supermarket operator Yonghui Superstores Co. Ltd. for 4.31 billion yuan, with the right to nominate two directors to the board.(SD-Agencies)