JD’s new on-demand delivery service opens up to anyone with a bike

When the sharing economy meets the lazy economy, internet companies see opportunity. Today Chinese ecommerce giant JD is letting average Joes and Janes fulfill orders made through Dao Jia, the company’s on-demand delivery service for meals and groceries.

JD says that anyone over the age of 18 that own a smartphone and pass training would qualify to become a courier in Shanghai and Beijing. Like UberX, couriers can set their own hours and complete as many orders as they want. JD doesn’t mention commissions, and doesn’t go into detail about which orders will go out to freelancers versus its in-house delivery team (we’ve asked them to elaborate on these points). But it does say that it will provide subsidies of RMB 6 (about US$1) for each completed order.

JD is investing aggressively in on-demand delivery, as the sector undergoes a boom in China. The company contributed to a US$350 million round in meal delivery startup Eleme, alongside a US$50 million round in like-minded startup Daojia. JD described these firms as “major partners” for JD Daojia (which was once known as Pai Daojia), but the extent of their collaboration isn’t quite clear. Ele.me continues to operate independently, and its blue carts pepper the streets of Beijing on any given day.

To a certain extent, JD’s move into peer-to-peer delivery is uncharacteristic. The company is best known for its same-day delivery guarantee for ecommerce purchases, which it managed to ensure by building an internal logistics network. This is in contrast to rival Alibaba, which has traditionally relied on third-party partners for fulfillment. But it’s not clear if this crowdsourced service marks a genuine commitment or a mere experiment for JD.

JD won’t be the first internet company to dive into crowdsourced delivery. Renren Kuaidi, a Sichuan-based peer-to-peer delivery startup, also works with brick-and-mortar vendors to ship flowers and desserts on-demand. The company has raised US$15 million to date.

Editing by Osman Husain