On August 17, JD.com, founded by Liu Qiangdong, released the second quarter Financial Statements and first half performance report of this year. According to relevant data, JD.com’s net income reached 21.1 billion in the second quarter, far exceeding market expectations, with a year-on-year growth of 33.8%. For the first time, its net income exceeded 200 billion in a single quarter, setting a new record for China’s retail and internet industry record.

As of June 30, JD.com’s number of active purchasing users reached 417.4 million in the last 12 months with an increase of 30 million users in a single quarter, an astonishing, record-breaking year-on-year growth rate of 29.9% in nearly 11 quarters.

In terms of net profit, under non-US GAAP guidelines, JD.com’s net profit in the second quarter reached 5.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 66.1% and a month-on-month increase of 98.9%. While achieving profits for six consecutive quarters, it also set the record for the highest quarterly net profit in nearly three years.

One needs no convincing that JD.com has scored yet another satisfactory “report card”. Several core data have grown against the odds during the epidemic, even setting record breaking growth rates, another sign of JD.com entering a higher-speed growth track. For Liu Qiangdong, this also means that he is now in a better position to give back to his hometown.

Hometown seems to be an ever-present soft spot in the hearts of every Chinese people. This is particularly true for Liu Qiangdong. When speaking about his hometown, Liu Qiangdong once said, “In my mind, hometown nostalgia is an ever-present yearning for one’s hometown mixed with a touch of concern.”

Flashback to when Liu Qiangdong’s family in its humble days, he was sent to University in Beijing with a little over 500 yuan and 76 eggs scrapped together by his fellow villagers. As the saying goes, “the grace of dripping water is repaid by the spring”. Liu Qiangdong did not choose to come back home dripping in glory, expecting people to praise his success. Instead, the development of his hometown is at the top of his concern. With JD.com’s resources behind him, Liu Qiangdong has given his maximum support for the development of Suqian employment, education, infrastructure, and many more.

Today on the breakfast menu were tea eggs that are long missing from my life. I could not help but help myself to an egg and it was better than I expected! When I left home at 18, the 76 tea eggs and the 500-yuan grandma sew into my underwear were all I had. The 500-yuan was hard-earned money scraped together by my parents, my family, friends, and fellow villagers. Back then tea eggs are the best nutrition supplements you could find! That 500 yuan was all that my family could give me. I started thinking of ways to support myself from my very first day at school. The 500 yuan and that 76 tea eggs were my tickets to the world! This is why I spare no expense to pull investments and donate supplies for companies in my hometown. Everyone should be grateful for the help they received along the way! I would spend my whole life repaying for the help my fellow villagers gave me!

In 2009, Liu Qiangdong relocated the headquarters of JD.com’s Nationwide Customer Service Call Center to Suqian. At that time, it created the employment opportunities for approximately 20,000 people in Suqian, and contributed more than 2 billions in tax revenue for the same year. In 2011, he invested 4.5 billion yuan for the construction of JD.com (Suqian) Information Technology Park.

What’s even more impressive is that Liu Qiangdong not only relocated JD.com, he also “persuaded” Dangdang Customer Service Center to relocate here as well. Now, under the leadership of Liu Qiangdong, an entire e-commerce industry park has been established across from JD.com’s Nationwide Customer Service Call Center. Companies like Baidu Nuomi, 360 Search, Tuniu, Netease and Xiaomi have all set up offices in the park.

In 2010, Liu Qiangdong invested another 2 million yuan to set up the Lailong Town JD.com Education Fund. Since 2012, he have invested another 2 million yuan each year to establish the JD.com Special Needs Relief Fund. In 2013, Liu Qiangdong donated five high-end Yutong school buses for Suqian Long Town Zhongxin Elementary School and 2 million yuan in cash for the construction of the Suqian Middle School History Museum.

In 20017, Liu Qiangdong announced he would donate over 100 million yuan to Suqian for non-profit causes such as local education, culture, elderly care, and poverty alleviation. He also introduced the prestigious Nanjing Foreign Language School into Suqian. All these for one reason only: to attract excellent teachers from Jiangsu, the whole country and the world to provide the best education possible to the children in Suqian.

According to public statistics, since 2009, Liu Qiangdong’s total investment and donations to Suqian and Xiangtan, his first and second hometown, have exceeded 16.1 billion over the course of a decade!

Regarding his maximum efforts in providing investments, manpower and resources for the development of his hometown, Liu Qiangdong said quite straightforwardly in an interview, “Suqian is my hometown, where else would it ask for investments if I didn’t take the lead myself?”

Now that JD.com has once again produced strong financial numbers and continues to run freely on the fast track, Liu Qiangdong will certainly continue to increase his support in the development of his hometown in the future!