Liu Qiangdong and wife Zhang Zetian on Oct 1, 2015. [Photo/VCG]

JD.com, the main rival to Alibaba Group and China's second largest e-commerce company, is backed by Walmart Inc, Alphabet Inc's Google, and China's Tencent Holdings Ltd.

The company has not been performing well recently. Its Q2 net income totaled 122.3 billion yuan ($18.5 billion), up 31.2 percent, while its net profit was down 51.04 percent to 478 million yuan based on non-GAAP accounting, according to the company's Q2 fiscal report released on Aug 16.

Liu married Zhang Zetian, a 25-old-year online celebrity who graduated from China's Tshinghua University in 2015. Zhang gave birth to their daughter in 2016.

Liu's net worth was estimated at $7.9 billion as of Sept 3, 2018, ranking him at No 140 among the world's wealthiest.