JD.com is Using Its Infrastructure to Fight the Coronavirus Epidemic

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Anyone who is familiar with Jingdong or JD.com is more likely than not also aware of its origins. 

Founded in 1998 by Liu Quingdong, or Richard Liu as he is more commonly known, Jingdong used to be a small computer retail business that served moderate foot traffic in its target areas. That was the case until the SARS epidemic hit China in 2004, stopping all business as the country’s residents knew it.

It was at that time that Liu Quingdong had the idea to take the computer business online in order to serve customers while also keeping his own employee safe. That was how JD.com was born, to what is today one of the largest ecommerce and tech companies in the world.

The Company is Helping Those Who Need Help in the Midst of COVID-19

Amidst the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak, the story of where Jingdong started is very relevant in today’s date. So far, the virus has travelled to various locations across the globe, crashing markets, affecting businesses, and most importantly, halting life. 

Given that Richard Liu started Jingdong’s online operations in the middle of an epidemic, it is only natural that the company reaches out to help businesses experiencing the same thing that the ecommerce giant went through less than two decades ago. 

How is Jingdong Helping Combat the COVID-19 Outbreak?

Under the leadership of Liu Quingdong, Jingdong has amassed an impressive empire that comprises several business divisions such as logistics, software services, and infrastructure support. One such division is JD Health, which provides services in the healthcare industry. 

JD Medicine Procurement operates under JD Health’s label to provide B2B businesses with a faster way to obtain medical items. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the business noticed that several of its merchants had to stop their operations due to the ongoing lockdown, prevention mechanisms and quarantine efforts in various locations in China. 

In order to make sure that these medical businesses could continue their operations without failure, Jingdong acted fast under the leadership of Richard Liu and quickly provided infrastructural support to pharmacies that needed a helping hand in order to stay afloat and keep their doors open. 

As a part of these efforts, JD.com used its resources at JD Logistics to schedule timely deliveries from Puren Pharmaceuticals, one of the top medicine companies in Guangshui, Hubei province. Due to the ongoing prevention and treatment efforts in Hubei, the company had been unable to make deliveries to its target areas that needed the medication. But with Jingdong’s assistance, it is now able to continue its supply without failure. 

But that’s not all. Jingong also provided support through its own employees to pharmacies and online healthcare supplies merchants who could not accept online orders due to a lack of available workforce at their end. This way, Jingdong ensured that it goes the extra mile to continuing healthcare operations when people need them the most. 

In addition to these efforts, Jingdong also took the step to add epidemic-related supplies to its JD Medicine Procurement platform. Items such as preventative masks and goggles are now being offered to healthcare professionals in a safe and timely manner, as well as those individuals who are infected and need such supplies to prevent the spread of the disease. Jingdong has reported that it has delivered 8 million of such supplies as of February 2020. 

With these efforts, Jingdong is showing that it hasn’t forgotten its past but has only learnt from it. Now that it has the resources to fight another epidemic in more than one ways, the firm is leaving no stone unturned to help those in need.