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* Q1 revenue up 20.9% at 121.1 bln yuan
* Gain per ADS rises to 4.96 yuan from 1.04 yuan in Q1 2018
* Firm sees Q2 revenue growth of between 19% and 23%(Adds second-quarter outlook, background)
May 10 (Reuters) - Chinese e-commerce firm JD.com'srevenues grew at their slowest pace on record in the firstquarter as China's tech giants start to tap out their existinguser bases, though its 21% expansion marginally beat analysts'forecasts.
China's leading internet companies are trying to find freshareas of growth after saturating the market for their coreproducts and services, which has led to a hit on profitabilityas they invest in new sectors.
JD.com, which operates chiefly as an online marketplace,most notably for consumer electronics, first achieved positivenet income in early 2017, about three years after it listed.However, it has struggled to maintain profitability.
Martin Bao, who tracks China's tech sector at ICBCInternational, said the company has exhausted its core base ofshoppers in first-tier Chinese cities and has to find newcustomers in rural China.
JD differentiates itself from rivals in China by operatingan in-house logistics team and warehousing unit and carrying itsown inventory.
In contrast, rival Alibaba Group Holding Ltdoutsources its logistics to third-party companies, though itowns stakes in many of them. Unlike JD, it makes money primarilyvia advertising, rather than commissions on sales.
JD.com is undergoing a period of restructuring, with severalhigh-level staff leaving the company in recent months. Currentand former employees told Reuters that JD launched layoffs atall levels at the company, and that morale was low.
In an earnings call on Friday, executives said the staffcuts had been "overinterpreted" and denied that there had been"massive layoffs"
Meanwhile, a University of Minnesota student recently fileda civil lawsuit against JD.com chief executive officer RichardLiu, alleging he raped her. Liu, through his lawyers, hasmaintained his innocence.
Liu holds 78% voting rights on JD.com's board, and boarddirectors cannot achieve a quorum without him present atmeetings.
Liu's concentration of power, coupled with the high-levelstaff departures, has left some investors concerned about apossible leadership void at JD.com.
On Wednesday, JD.com's ownership structure and staff exitsbecame a trending topic on Chinese social media site Weibo.
JD.com also said on Friday it would renew its strategicpartnership with social media giant Tencent Holdings Ltdfor three more years, starting in late May.
The deal embeds a link to its e-commerce site in Tencent'schat app WeChat.
It also said it has secured financing for its healthcaresubsidiary JD Health with investors including CICC Capital andCPEChina Fund. Post financing, the unit is now valued at $7billion.
For the current quarter, JD expects to secure revenues ofbetween 145 billion yuan and 150 billion yuan, the mid-point ofwhich is above an average analysts' forecast of 145.69 billionyuan, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Net income attributed to ordinary shareholders rose to 7.3billion yuan in the first quarter, up from 1.5 billion yuan ayear before. The company posted revenue of 121.1 billion yuan,narrowly beating analysts' estimate of 120.1 billion yuan.(Reporting by Sayanti Chakraborty in Bengaluru and Josh Horwitzin Shanghai; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Jan Harvey)
