China's JD.com third-quarter revenue beats estimates as customers double

By Paul Carsten

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's JD.com Inc, the country's No. 2 e-commerce company, posted a greater-than-expected 61 percent jump in third-quarter revenue as its number of customer accounts more than doubled to 46.1 million from a year ago.

JD.com, a distant rival to Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, said revenue rose to $4.73 billion (3 billion pounds), or 29 billion yuan, in the three months through September, beating an average forecast of $4.67 billion from 13 analysts polled by Reuters

The Beijing-based company said it expected revenue in the fourth quarter to reach between 32 and 33 billion yuan as it invests in logistics and aims to increase penetration in China's smaller cities.

JD.com's revenue is a closely watched measure of its performance because its earnings have been affected by a series of exceptional expenses related to a strategic tie-up with Tencent Holdings Ltd.

The company also saw rapid growth in its advertising service and newer online "marketplace" business, which competes with Alibaba's Taobao and is similar to eBay Inc.

Net revenue from outside its Amazon-like online direct sales business was up 184 percent from a year ago, as gross merchandise volume (GMV) in the marketplace business grew to 26.8 billion yuan from 7.7 billion.

Executives reiterated they expect margins excluding exceptional items to be either at break even or minus 1 percent for the fourth quarter and all of 2015.

"The most important thing is marketplace expansion, that was pretty significant," said Tian Hou, a Beijing-based analyst at TH Capital.

The total value of goods sold, or GMV, on JD.com was 67.3 billion yuan, up 111 percent from the same period last year.

"We maintained excellent momentum in the third quarter as we saw stronger than expected year-over-year growth in both gross merchandise volume and active customer accounts," Richard Liu, JD.com's founder and chief executive, said in a statement.

Third-quarter income excluding exceptional items costs was 370.8 million yuan, more than double a year earlier.

JD.com made a net loss in the quarter of 164.4 million yuan, due to the amortisation of intangible assets resulting from assets and business acquisitions from Tencent, the company said.

JD.com shares were up 1.8 percent at $27.50 in pre-market trading in New York.

(Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and David Holmes)