In-Depth Research Report on JD.com's Strategic Layout of Cultural Tourism Business

Based on collected data and analysis, we now present the in-depth research report on

.

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JD.com recently established

, with a registered capital of RMB 100,000, fully owned by Beijing JD Century Trading Co., Ltd. The company’s business scope includes: tourism services, song and dance entertainment activities, aviation business services, experiential expansion activities, and organizing cultural and artistic exchange activities, among others [1].

This is not JD.com’s first foray into the cultural tourism sector. As early as the beginning of 2011, JD.com launched its flight ticket booking service, officially entering the tourism industry [2]. On June 18, 2025, JD.com announced its entry into the hotel and travel market in a high-profile manner, launching the

, which commits to a zero-commission policy of up to 3 years, and simultaneously rolled out the “10 Billion Subsidy” promotion [3].

Subsequently, on September 9, 2025, JD.com and Jinjiang Hotels signed a comprehensive strategic cooperation agreement. The two parties will carry out in-depth cooperation in three major areas: catering scenario innovation, hotel and travel services, and supply chain collaboration. All hotels under Jinjiang will gradually settle on JD.com, realizing real-time synchronization of data such as room status, pricing, and orders through the central reservation system, and promoting the interconnection of membership systems [4].

Business Segment	Specific Content	Strategic Positioning
Hotel & Travel Services	Hotel bookings, flight ticket bookings, scenic spot tickets	Core Business
Cultural Tourism Activities	Song and dance entertainment, experiential expansion, cultural exchanges	Extended Business
Business Services	Aviation business, corporate travel	Collaborative Business
Local Life Services	Catering, convenience store delivery	Traffic Entry

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Richard Liu Qiangdong, founder of JD.com, once proposed the “Ten-Step Sugarcane” theory for the consumer goods industry, dividing the value chain into ten links: creativity, design, R&D, manufacturing, pricing, marketing, transaction, warehousing, distribution, and after-sales service. The first five links belong to brand owners, while the last five are undertaken by retailers [5].

JD.com’s cultural tourism layout is a natural extension of this theory. By entering the hotel and travel sector, JD.com is further expanding the value chain upstream and downstream:

• Upstream Expansion
  : Involvement in hotel procurement and supply chain management
• Downstream Expansion
  : Provision of corporate travel services and membership rights integration
• Horizontal Integration
  : Integration of catering, accommodation, and travel scenarios

At a sharing session in June 2025, Richard Liu Qiangdong clearly stated:

[6]

This strategic thinking is reflected in the cultural tourism business as follows:

1. Hotel & Travel Supply Chain Integration
   : The supply chains behind hotels and catering are fragmented and high-cost; JD.com is conducting systematic transformation through its New Business Division
2. Cost Efficiency Improvement
   : Reduce procurement costs through economies of scale, and enhance distribution efficiency through the logistics network
3. Traffic Closed-Loop Construction
   : Food delivery attracts new customer groups, while hotel and travel services realize traffic conversion and value monetization [7]

“I can never make money from selling meals at the front end, as long as I make money from the supply chain. Currently, 40% of cross-sales come from our e-commerce platform, and the money we lose is still more cost-effective than buying traffic from Douyin or Tencent.” — Richard Liu Qiangdong

JD.com’s cultural tourism layout is an important part of its

. From the perspective of the strategic timeline:

Convenience Stores → Food Delivery → Hotel & Travel Business → Integrated Cultural Tourism Services
   ↓          ↓           ↓            ↓
   └──────────┴───────────┴────────────┘
              Instant Retail & Local Life Ecosystem

This layout directly competes with Alibaba and Meituan:

• Alibaba
  : Integrated Fliggy and Ele.me into Alibaba’s China E-commerce Business Group, and launched the “Amap Street Ranking” on Amap
• Meituan
  : Launched a joint membership program with Marriott International; spending by Meituan Black Gold and Black Diamond members accounts for as high as 65% of total consumption
• Douyin
  : Invested hundreds of millions of yuan in subsidies, and partnered with high-quality hotel chains [8]

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JD.com has

, and has in-depth cooperation with more than 30,000 large enterprises and over 8 million small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) customers across the country. Its users and partners highly overlap with the main customer groups of four-star and above hotels [9].

JD.com’s large number of corporate members and business travel customers have an inherent demand for hotel and travel services, forming a

. Corporate customers can solve their business travel needs in one stop while purchasing office supplies.

• The self-operated model provides category supply services for the hotel and travel industry
• The self-owned logistics system enhances distribution competitiveness
• Large-scale deployment of “Wolf Clan” robot clusters in over 20 provinces across China and more than 10 countries worldwide [10]

• “Zero Flight Ticket Bundling”
  : Avoids the widespread “big data price discrimination against regular customers” phenomenon in the industry
• “Zero Commission for Hotels for Up to 3 Years”
  : Significantly reduces the operating costs of hotel merchants
• The transparent pricing strategy is highly aligned with the brand positioning [11]

Challenge Category	Specific Performance	Impact Level
User Perception Cultivation	Consumers’ perception of the JD.com brand still remains at “e-commerce platform”	Medium-High
Supply-Side Resources	Obvious barriers in the high-end hotel supply chain	High
Organizational Collaboration	Need for internal process optimization and technical system upgrading	Medium
Competitive Pressure	Strong rivals such as Ctrip, Meituan, and Alibaba	High

Expert analysis points out that for JD.com to succeed in the hotel and travel sector,

, as the barriers in the high-end supply chain are very obvious [12].

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According to the latest financial report data, JD.com’s current revenue structure is as follows:

Business Segment	Revenue Proportion	Growth Trend
Electronic Products & Home Appliances	59.0%	Mature Stage
Daily Necessities	36.2%	Growth Stage
Logistics and Other Services	4.8%	High-Growth Stage

The addition of the cultural tourism business will:

1. Enrich Service Categories
   : Extend from commodity retail to service consumption
2. Enhance User Stickiness
   : Increase user activity through business travel and hotel & travel scenarios
3. Create Cross-Sales Opportunities
   : Traffic conversion chain from food delivery → hotel & travel services → e-commerce

Evaluation from the perspective of supply chain collaboration:

Supply Chain Link	Synergy Value	Contribution of Cultural Tourism Business
Product Procurement	85/100	Centralized procurement of hotel supplies
Warehouse Management	78/100	Pre-positioned warehouses for scenic spot materials
Logistics Distribution	92/100	Reuse of instant distribution network
Terminal Retail	75/100	Commodity sales in hotel scenarios
After-Sales Service	70/100	Integration of ticket change and refund services
Cultural Tourism Services	45/100	New business with untapped potential

                    Cultural Tourism Business
                     ↙    ↘
           ┌────────┴─────┴────────┐
           │      Traffic Synergy         │
           │   User Sharing/Scenario Integration    │
           └────────┬─────┬────────┘
     ┌───────────┐  │     │  ┌───────────┐
     │  Instant Retail  │←─┼─────┼→│  E-Commerce Retail  │
     │  (Catering/Convenience Stores)│  │     │  │(3C/Daily Necessities) │
     └───────────┘  │     │  └───────────┘
                    │     │
              ┌─────┴─────┴─────┐
              │   Supply Chain Middle Office    │
              │ (Logistics/Procurement/Technology) │
              └─────────────────┘

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According to the latest market data [0]:

Indicator	JD.com	Industry Average	Evaluation
Market Capitalization	$42 billion	-	Mid-cap Tech Stock
P/E	9.99x	~20x	Significantly Undervalued
P/B	1.39x	~2.5x	Undervalued
ROE	13.81%	~15%	Above Average
3-Year Price Change	-53.97%	-	Over-Sold

The analyst consensus target price is

, representing a upside potential from the current stock price [0].

• China’s hotel and travel industry maintained strong growth in 2025
• The scale of the local life service market continues to expand
• JD.com’s “zero commission” strategy is expected to quickly gain market share

Valuation of Cultural Tourism Business = Market Size × Market Share × Profit Margin × Synergy Coefficient
             = Large        × Increasing  × To Be Improved × 1.2-1.5

Risk Type	Specific Content	Risk Level
Competitive Risk	Siege by Ctrip, Meituan, and Alibaba	High
Investment Risk	Early-stage loss pressure	Medium-High
Execution Risk	Difficulty in supply chain integration	Medium
Market Risk	Macroeconomic impact on travel demand	Medium

Evaluation Dimension	Rating	Explanation
Valuation Attractiveness	★★★★★	P/E ratio is only 10x, significantly lower than the industry average
Growth Potential	★★★★☆	Dual-driven by cultural tourism and instant retail
Competitive Advantages	★★★★☆	Solid supply chain and user base
Risk Level	★★★☆☆	Fierce competition requires continuous investment
Comprehensive Rating	Overweight	Attractive risk-return ratio

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1. Clear Strategic Logic
   : JD.com’s entry into the cultural tourism industry is in line with its long-term strategy of “focusing on the supply chain”; it is not blind diversification but a natural extension of its core capabilities.

2. Short-Term Focus on Resource Accumulation
   : Quickly gather supply-side resources from hotels through the “zero commission” strategy to establish an initial market position.

3. Mid-Term Focus on Synergistic Effects
   : The cultural tourism business will form a traffic closed-loop with food delivery and e-commerce, creating incremental value through supply chain integration.

4. Long-Term Growth Engine Potential
   : However, it needs to overcome challenges such as user perception cultivation and acquisition of high-end hotel resources.

Investor Type	Recommended Strategy
Long-Term Value Investors	Accumulate on Dips : Current valuation provides a margin of safety, and the cultural tourism business offers a growth option
Growth-Oriented Investors	Cautiously Monitor : Wait for market share data verification; optimistic about subsequent growth elasticity
Short-Term Traders	Mainly Wait-and-See : The cultural tourism business is unlikely to contribute significant performance in the short term

• Number and quality of settled hotels
• Changes in revenue proportion of cultural tourism business
• User activity and repurchase rate
• Cross-sales conversion rate
• Profit margin change trend

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[0] Jinling API - JD.com Company Profile and Market Data (2026-01-07)

[1] 21st Century Business Herald - “Richard Liu Answers Everything: The Underlying Logic of Food Delivery, Hotel & Travel Services, and Overseas Strategy” (2025-06-18) https://www.21jingji.com/article/20250618/herald/8ef358ca2ddf2510b22561c70b85500a.html

[2] Securities Times - “What’s Behind JD.com’s Official Announcement to Enter the Hotel & Travel Industry?” (2025-06) https://www.stcn.com/article/detail/2125974.html

[3] Guancha.cn - “Why Has the Hotel & Travel Business Become the ‘Unforgettable White Moonlight’ for E-Commerce Platforms?” (2025-09-12) https://www.guancha.cn/qiche/2025_09_12_789924.shtml

[4] CBNData - “Giants Compete: Where is Tongcheng’s Path Amid the Restructuring of the Hotel & Travel Industry?” (2025-09) https://www.cbndata.com/information/294224

[5] Yiou - “Super Supply Chain Takes Root, JD.com’s Ecosystem ‘Thrives’” (2025-11-21) https://www.iyiou.com/analysis/202511211115095

[6] People’s Daily - “‘Hotel & Travel + Local Life’ May Be the Focus of Future Competition” (2025-06-30) http://paper.people.com.cn/zgcsb/pc/content/202506/30/content_30083337.html

[7] Views of E-Commerce Strategy Analyst Li Chengdong - Quoted from Securities Times report

[8] Summary of 2025 Hotel & Travel Business Developments across Various Platforms

[9] Data from JD.com’s Official Open Letter

[10] Yiou - JD Logistics Supply Chain Technology Layout (2025-11-21)

[11] Views of Experts Yang Yanfeng and Zhou Haitao - Quoted from China City News report

[12] Views of Zhou Haitao, Academic Committee Member of the National Public Cultural Development Center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism - Quoted from China City News

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January 7, 2026
Jinling API, brokerage research reports, public market information
This report is for reference only and does not constitute investment advice. Investment involves risks; please proceed with caution.