JD Logistics, a subsidiary of JD.com, has started hiring full-time meal delivery riders to support its expansion in China’s food delivery market.

The service, launched in February 2025 after a trial last year, now handles over 25 million daily orders.

To meet this demand, JD.com has hired over 120,000 full-time riders and aims to reach 150,000 by the end of the quarter.

However, JD.com’s rider count remains far below that of rivals. Meituan employs over 7.45 million couriers, while Alibaba’s Ele.me has around 4 million.

JD Logistics said hiring full-time couriers is aimed at enhancing efficiency through synergies with its broader operations.

🔗 Source: South China Morning Post

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ JD’s full-time rider strategy extends its long-standing vertical integration model

JD.com’s decision to hire full-time food delivery riders aligns with its established business philosophy of owning the entire supply chain, a strategy that distinguishes it from competitors.

Since its early days, JD has operated with a vertically integrated model, owning warehouses, delivery networks, and employing its own delivery personnel to ensure quality control and customer satisfaction 1.

This approach contrasts with market leader Meituan and Alibaba’s Ele.me, which primarily rely on gig workers, making JD’s full-time employment model a potential competitive differentiator in service consistency.

As of 2015, JD was already operating 196 warehouses across 46 cities with over 4,760 delivery stations, enabling same-day and next-day delivery for over 85% of orders 1.

The company’s recruitment target of 150,000 full-time riders by quarter’s end represents a significant investment but remains far smaller than Meituan’s 7.45 million and Ele.me’s 4 million riders (mix of full and part-time), highlighting the scale challenge JD faces.

2️⃣ China’s food delivery market presents massive but fiercely contested growth opportunity

JD’s entry into food delivery targets a market valued at $81.9 billion in 2024 and projected to grow to $197.9 billion by 2033, representing a 9.79% compound annual growth rate 2.

Despite being a late entrant, JD has scaled to 25 million daily orders since its February launch, though this still trails Meituan’s reported 90 million daily orders and Alibaba’s 60 million quick commerce orders 3.

The company’s rapid recruitment of delivery personnel reflects both the market opportunity and the intense competitive pressure, with China’s market regulator already summoning major food delivery providers to address competition concerns 4.

Internet penetration and growing consumer preference for convenience are key drivers fueling this market’s expansion, particularly as services extend beyond major cities to smaller urban areas 2.

JD’s first-quarter 2025 financials show the stakes involved: while overall revenue grew 15.8% year-on-year to 301.1 billion yuan ($41.8 billion), the costs of expansion in competitive areas like food delivery have put pressure on profitability 4.

3️⃣ Full-time employment model creates quality-cost tradeoff in competitive market

JD’s strategy of employing full-time delivery riders creates a fundamental tension between service quality and cost structure in the highly competitive food delivery market.

The company’s Q1 2025 earnings revealed declining profitability despite revenue growth, suggesting that the costs of rapid expansion into food delivery are already impacting financial performance 5.

Full-time employment typically entails higher fixed costs compared to the gig worker model, potentially creating margin pressure as JD competes with established players who have optimized their operations over years.

Analysts note that JD could gain an advantage in service consistency and quality compared to rivals who rely heavily on third-party couriers, but caution that managing a large full-time fleet involves significant costs that could hurt profit margins 3.

The company appears to be betting that synergies with its existing last-mile delivery operations will improve overall operational efficiency 6, though it remains to be seen whether these efficiencies can offset the higher costs of full-time employment in a market where price competition is intense.

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