The issue price was settled at USD 19, the opening price reached USD 21.75. The closing price was lower at USD 20.9. Based on the closing price, the market cap of JD.com hit USD 28.6 billion.
It is quite interesting that the e-commerce company chose this time to go pubic, as it is also the time that its competitor, Alibaba is in the process to be listed in US. The more obvious reason seems to be to raise funds. However, if we analyze deeper, we find the fundamental reason is to seize this opportunity to gain a premium valuation. As known, Alibaba is JD.com’s competitor and if Alibaba goes public successfully, JD.com will also get a higher valuation as well. However the coming era of mobile internet has posed potential threat to the traditional e-commerce. The success of Wechat has changed the market landscape and JD.com is weak in the mobile market. If the company misses this trend, the current premium valuation may prove to be unjustified.
