(Yicai Global) June 8 -- Shares of Dada Nexus rose after the Chinese owner of on-demand delivery platforms JD Daojia and Dada Now said its revenue could jump as much as 78 percent this quarter from a year ago. 

Dada Nexus’ [NASDAQ: DADA] equity price was 5.7 percent up in New York in after-hours trading after rising 1.3 percent to close at USD25.70 yesterday. Still, the stock price is more than 30 percent down this year.

Revenue could reach CNY1.5 billion (USD226.8 million) in the second quarter, the Shanghai-based firm said in its first-quarter earnings report today. 

The company revealed a share buyback program. In the next 12 months, the firm will purchase up to USD150 million worth of its stock.

Sales were promising in the first quarter. Dada Nexus reported a 52 percent jump in revenue to CNY1.7 billion from a year ago. 

But net loss widened. The number expanded nearly three times to CNY710.3 million (USD111.1 million) from a year ago, the firm said, without explaining the widening gap.

Dada Now, a crowdsourcing platform for express delivery, made up more than half of the total revenue. The sum surged by 51 percent to CNY894.5 million due to the rising corporate and intracity service demand.

The sister platform was doing well too. Revenue of JD Daojia, an online hub of grocery stores, increased by 53 percent to CNY778.3 million, because of the increasing number of active users and the enlarging sizes of their orders.

More clients discovered the two platforms. The total number of active users was 46.1 million for the 12 months ended in March, an increase of 67 percent.

Last March, Chinese retail giant JD.Com paid USD800 million to buy a majority stake in Dada Nexus. "We are excited to further deepen our strategic cooperation with JD under the omni-channel strategy," Philip Kuai, chairman and chief executive of Dada Nexus, wrote in the earnings report. 

"Leveraging JD's devoted strategic support, we will better fulfill demands for local on-demand retail and its delivery on JD, covering various scenarios and categories."

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi