Billionaire founder Richard Liu urges JD.com to cut prices as he is ready to let go 10 pct of executives, leaked speech shows

Liu said he intends to fire 10 per cent of vice presidents and 10 per cent of the company’s business directors by the end of this year

He was particularly unhappy about the retail sector with JD.com failing to match competitors on pricing, according to leaked speech

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Richard Liu, founder of JD.com, has urged the company to focus on basics. Photo: AP

Published: 8:30pm, 24 Nov 2022Updated: 9:37am, 25 Nov 2022

Richard Liu Qiangdong has urged JD.com to get back to basics, such as low prices and quality service, to win the hearts of online Chinese consumers, according to a leaked internal speech by the billionaire founder of the company published by media outlet LatePost.

Two people familiar with the situation at JD.com, which is battling weak retail sentiment, confirmed the authencity of Liu’s comments, which were originally made in a video conference to company executives and later distributed as a memo to staff.

Liu said he intends to fire 10 per cent of poorly-performing senior level executives by the end of this year, according to the LatePost article. The South China Morning Post reported earlier that the company will slash the salaries of around 2,000 senior managers by up to 20 per cent, as part of efforts to boost housing and education benefits for its rank-and-file employees.

JD.com, which is a close e-commerce competitor of Alibaba Group Holding, owner of the Post, declined to comment.

According to a Thursday report by LatePost, JD.com has also began an organisational shake-up, making managerial changes to its core JD Retail business and other segments, with Xin Lijun remaining as JD Retail’s CEO.

The computer, communication and consumer electronic products under JD Retail will be consolidated into two units, the home appliance unit led by Li Shuai and the computer communication unit led by Wu Shuangxi, according to LatePost.

Billionaire founder Richard Liu urges JD.com to cut prices as he is ready to let go 10 pct of executives, leaked speech shows

Liu said he intends to fire 10 per cent of vice presidents and 10 per cent of the company’s business directors by the end of this year He was particularly unhappy about the retail sector with JD.com failing to match competitors on pricing, according to leaked speech

Liu said he intends to fire 10 per cent of vice presidents and 10 per cent of the company’s business directors by the end of this year

He was particularly unhappy about the retail sector with JD.com failing to match competitors on pricing, according to leaked speech