JD to ramp up tech investment

E-commerce giant believes digital services will be 'key engine' for revenue growth

Chinese e-commerce giant JD will speed up efforts in technology investment and said its expenditure on research and development amounted to more than 13 billion yuan ($1.9 billion) in the first three quarters of this year, surpassing the 12.1 billion yuan it spent in 2018.

Xu Lei, chief executive officer of JD Retail, said the consumer-to-manufacturer or C2M model, which leverages online retailers' big data and customer analysis capabilities to optimize a brand's products specifically to meet the unique demands of the Chinese market, has gained momentum.