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Investing.com -- JD.com Inc Adr (NASDAQ:JD) founder and chairman Richard Liu outlined an ambitious roadmap for revitalizing the company following what he described as a half-decade of stagnation. At a recent event reported on by Sina (BitStamp:SINA), Liu unveiled plans to move aggressively into the catering, hotel, and tourism industries, seeking to leverage the company’s logistical strengths for growth.

Liu acknowledged missed opportunities and a lack of innovation at JD.com over recent years, calling it “a lost five years” and “a five-year decline.” He added that it was “the five most undistinguished and least valuable years in my entrepreneurial history,” as per a rough translation of Sina’s transcripts... a surprisingly candid statement from one of China’s leading tech executives.

The newly charted course includes entering the food delivery sector and building out partnerships with hotels and restaurants. This effort follows JD.com’s expansion into retail convenience services, with a network that now encompasses 1.5 million store locations.

Liu emphasized that the firm’s competitive edge would lie in reducing supply chain costs and avoiding monopolistic behavior. “No platform has the ability to make merchants choose 1 of 2,” he said, indicating that JD.com would pursue cooperative, not coercive, market strategies.

The company aims to cut gross profit margins within its target industries from current averages of 60% to approximately 20%, yielding cost reductions of up to two-thirds for end consumers. “The original industry average gross profit margin is 60%, which can also reduce our customer costs by 2/3,” Liu explained.

JD.com is also exploring financial technology as a future revenue stream, with Liu revealing new efforts to obtain stablecoin licenses in major economies. “Now it takes an average of 2 to 4 days to transfer money between companies, and the cost is quite high,” he noted, highlighting inefficiencies in international settlements JD aims to fix.

The planned digital currency project is expected to cut global B2B payment costs by as much as 90% and compress transaction times to under 10 seconds. Liu said the company ultimately wants to expand its digital payment systems to consumer transactions as well, stating, “We hope that one day everyone can use JD stablecoin to pay when consuming around the world.”

While the endeavor signals a significant pivot for JD.com, investor reaction remains cautious given the scope of Liu’s vision and lingering concerns from recent underperformance. The company’s next steps, and whether it can reignite the innovation that fueled its ascent, will be closely watched by analysts and shareholders alike.

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