China’s e-commerce and logistics giant JD has sent a letter to its massive sellers in cooperation, announcing the closure of its English e-commerce platform www.joybuy.com, due on December 9. The other two websites influenced by the decision are its websites in Russian and Spanish, www.jd.ru and www.joybuy.es, respectively.

According to the letter, Joybuy’s operation will be upgraded to business to business (B2B) model, which means it will serve as a platform for cross-border transactions and services instead of directly facing customers.

The company is also helping small and medium-sized sellers connect to third-party enterprises, and the letter said the website closure wouldn’t impact this part of businesses.

Joybuy was founded in 2015 as part of JD’s efforts in expanding to overseas markets. It aims to provide consumers around the world with an innovative platform through close cooperation with domestic suppliers in China, its website shows.

The latest website closure marks a slight strategic adjustment of its overseas expansion.

JD has set up an e-commerce joint venture JD.ID in Indonesia in 2015, and invested heavily to develop an e-commerce and fintech joint venture in Thailand in 2017. In 2018, the company expanded its SEA presence by investing in Vietnamese e-commerce firm tiki.vn, PingWest has reported.

As of December last year, it operates 32 overseas warehouses and opened two highly automated ones in Poland and Germany in March this year.

Despite an early start and all the efforts, JD still lagged behind Alibaba in global expansion. The latter’s cross-border units Lazada and AliExpress hold significant market share in SEA and Europe.