Overseas expansion and domestic contraction: J&T Express's 2025 financial report shows a tale of two extremes

Ask AI · J&T Express’s Successful Overseas Expansion: Why Has Its Reputation in China Been Falling Steadily?

In 2020, a “rabbit” that came from Southeast Asia surged into China’s express delivery market with a low-price punch. No one expected it to break into the top five in the industry within just two or three years—daily package volume exceeding 50 million, and even successfully listing, becoming the fiercest dark horse of that year.

By late March 2026, J&T Express released its 2025 full-year results. In the reporting period, J&T Express handled a total of 30.13 billion global parcels, up 22.2%; total revenue was $12.16 billion, up 18.5%; and adjusted net profit was $430 million, up 112.3%.

After three years of preparation and investment in operating new markets (including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Mexico, Brazil, and Egypt), last year it achieved adjusted EBIT profitability for the first time, recording $3.78M.

In the domestic market, J&T Express revenue was $6.71 billion, up about 5%. However, J&T Express China’s adjusted EBITDA was $363 million, down from $427 million in the same period of 2024. In addition, the per-ticket revenue in China also fell—from $0.32 in 2024 to $0.30 in 2025.

The number of parcels handled by J&T Express in China was 22.07 billion, up 11.4%, slowing compared with the more than 25% growth rate in 2023–2024. Measured by parcels handled, the company’s market share in China was 11.1%, slightly down from 11.3% in 2024 on a comparable basis.

The decline in market share may not be a simple fluctuation in performance, but a defining turning point. That means the rabbit that once stormed its way across the country on speed and low prices has now pressed down on the slowdown pedal in China—the most fiercely competitive battlefield of all.

The faster it runs overseas, the slower it gets at home

Open up J&T Express’s 2025 performance, and you’ll see two completely disconnected faces.

In Southeast Asia, it is an absolute king. Parcel volume jumped nearly 70%, market share reached 34.4%, it ranked first for six straight years, and it has been raking in profits—earning it the position of the most stable cash cow across the whole group. In new expansion markets such as Saudi Arabia, Mexico, and Brazil, it achieved profitability in just three years and replicated the Southeast Asia success model across the globe. The world is praising it for its expansion capability, profitability, and far-reaching reach.

However, in the China market, this company—once a cash-printing machine—seems to be a bit rusty. Even though the China business handled 22.07 billion parcels in 2025, it still forms the base of its operations, but the spread between 5% revenue growth and 11.4% parcel growth still exposes the embarrassment of declining per-ticket revenue.

J&T Express’s problem isn’t accidental; it’s the result of dual pressure from both the regulatory environment and market logic. From the regulatory standpoint, China’s express delivery industry has moved on from the barbaric era of “winning by price.” The regulatory authorities’ crackdown on disorderly low-price competition directly cut off the price-blade that J&T Express had relied on. From the market environment standpoint, the “Tongda” network and SF Express barriers are becoming stronger and stronger. As a latecomer, J&T Express wants to take another bite of the pie in a stock market—no different from snatching food from a tiger’s mouth.

Just in Q4 of 2025 alone, J&T Express reduced 500 outlets. Management tried to explain the contraction of domestic outlets in its financial report as “optimizing network structure,” but from the outside it looks more like a strategic cost-tightening—concentrating limited resources into overseas markets with higher returns.

On one side, it’s advancing triumphantly overseas; on the other, growth at home is slowing and market share is slipping slightly. J&T Express wrote its most real situation in a single financial report. It is still an outstanding student of globalization, but in China it is shifting from a disruptor back into a defender.

After rising on low prices, a reputational crisis arrives

J&T Express rose quickly in China by relying on a simple, brutal logic: grab orders with low pricing, build networks fast, and win through scale.

Back then, the “80-cent campaign nationwide” directly undercut the industry’s bottom prices and caught the fast train of e-commerce down-tier expansion. In one night, it built up its order volume. Acquiring Bestway, rolling out outlets, and rapidly listing—every step landed right on the windfall.

But once the windfall passed, the costs were fully exposed.

Behind the low prices are costs pushed to the extreme. The headquarters needs scale, profits, and data; pressure is passed down layer by layer until it lands entirely on the last-mile outlets and delivery personnel. Delivery fees get squeezed again and again; fines become increasingly heavy. Outlets can’t make money, employees can’t be retained, and service inevitably slides downhill.

On platforms such as Xiaohongshu and Black Cat Complaints, “avoiding J&T Express” has already become a kind of collective sentiment. Consumers’ anger concentrates on last-mile service—for example, parcels being thrown into pickup stations without authorization, delivery timeliness stalling, and customer service responses that are mechanical and delayed. Even some customer service representatives at J&T outlets, when facing complaints, reply directly: “J&T Express is about to go bankrupt; your problem can’t be solved.”

These complaints keep piling up on social platforms. On the Black Cat Complaints platform, searching for “J&T Express” shows more than 60k complaints. Once the tag of “low price = low quality” is slapped on, it’s hard to tear it off.

J&T Express hasn’t not tried to change. It upgraded sorting centers, launched dedicated lines for agricultural products, and introduced premium services. It also partnered with SF Express, trying to improve its reputation and image. But the underlying business model hasn’t changed, and the last-mile ecosystem hasn’t stabilized. No matter how many surface-level optimizations it makes, it’s still hard to truly reverse its reputation.

China’s express delivery market has long moved past the era of “whoever is cheaper wins.” When the whole industry collectively bid farewell to the price war and shifted to competing on service, timeliness, and reliability, J&T Express—built on low prices—suddenly found that the weapon it’s best at had been taken away.

Stabilizing the domestic market is the real challenge

Today, J&T Express stands at a very delicate crossroads.

It has a globalized advantage that others envy; it has deep roots in Southeast Asia; it has opened up growth space in new markets; global order volume has surpassed 30 billion; and profits have grown sharply. Looking at China’s express delivery companies, very few can match it in terms of truly standing firm overseas and truly making money.

But it also has soft weaknesses it can’t get around. The problems in front of it are clear: how to keep the China base stable? How to wash off the low-price branding? How to make the last-mile network truly healthy?

It can continue to focus on overseas markets, pursuing faster growth and higher profits; but China accounts for more than 70% of its parcel volume. That is the foundation of its scale and cash flow—it can’t be lost, and it can’t slow down too much.

It can continue to contract and optimize to cut costs and improve efficiency; but excessive contraction will inevitably harm the network, damage reputation, and lose customers—potentially causing market share to keep sliding.

It can continue to push transformation, offering higher value, better service, and building a brand; but that requires real capital investment, slowing down, respecting business rules, and changing the habit of pushing forward at full speed from the past.

For founder Li Jie and the entire J&T Express team, the hardest question now isn’t “how to run faster,” but how to run more steadily, for longer, and more healthily in the China market. The rabbit that once became famous by charging and fighting hard now has to learn patience, precision, and a long-term approach.

J&T Express’s 2025 financial report is not just a simple performance sheet—it’s a true account of a dark horse’s growth journey.

It proves that logistics companies can carve out a place in the world through courage and speed, but in China’s most mature, most over-contested market, speed can’t buy respect, and low prices can’t buy loyalty.

The more glorious it is globally, the more it must face the pressure from the China market. The more profits grow, the more it must address the shortcomings in last-mile service.

For J&T Express, 3 billion parcels is only a number. The real challenge begins at the moment it decides to slow down in China, sink in deeper, and deliver better service.

(Author: Wen Jiu, New Yellow River Institute of Science and Technology & Health Research)

Editor: Yang Zimeng Proofreader: Yang Hefang