China's JD.com calls out anti-competitive pressures on food delivery couriers
JD Takeaway began onboarding restaurants in February with promises of "zero commissions all year round", marking its entrance into China's highly competitive food delivery space and threatening to disrupt the market share of leading players who rely on scale for success in this low-margin sector.
In the post on JD.com's official Weixin account, addressed to couriers working with JD Takeaway, the company said it was aware of pressures on them to not accept orders from JD.com and that it sympathised with their plight of being forced to choose between platforms.
JD.com did not name competing platforms in its post.
China's food delivery sector has long been dominated by giant Meituan, with Alibaba-owned Ele.me the second-largest player in the country based on market share.
Meituan and Ele.me did not immediately reply to an emailed request for comment on JD.com's post.
Meituan, in several consecutive posts on its Weixin accounts, rejected JD.com's claims without naming it directly.
Meituan said it has never restricted couriers from working with other delivery services, and instead suggested that JD.com alone has curbed its couriers from working with other platforms.
In another post titled "Instead of spreading rumours to attract online attention, it is better to fulfil your promises," Meituan quoted both a classic Chinese martial arts novel and a renowned Chinese Buddhist monk, signalling its desire to avoid engaging in slander.
"If slandered, do not argue. I often see people who are slandered, and when they argue and explain, they suffer more," read one of the quotes.
Meituan also said it had punished one of its drivers for falsely claiming he had been banned by Meituan for taking orders from other platforms in an earlier post, describing the driver's claim as "pure fabrication".
JD.com has promised to provide sufficient orders to couriers banned by other platforms to ensure they can maintain their income level.
It also said it would double its recruitment aim for full-time riders to 100,000 from 50,000 in the next three months.
JD.com is the first platform to offer its full-time riders direct labour contracts, making them eligible to collect full insurance benefits.
JD.com did not reply to a request for more details on its post.
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