(Yicai Global) Aug. 24 -- Shares in JD.com surged almost 15 percent today in Hong Kong as the Chinese e-commerce giant logged an all-time high number of new customer accounts added in the second quarter despite a big fall in profit due to greater investment in manpower and infrastructure.

JD.com's Hong Kong-listed stock [HKG:9618] soared 14.94 percent to close at HKD280 (USD36). Its shares in New York [NASDAQ:JD] closed up 3.32 percent at USD65.73 yesterday.

Thirty-two million new customers joined the platform in the three months ended June 30, a 27.4 percent year-on-year leap, according to the firm’s latest earnings report released yesterday. Profit sank 95.18 percent to CNY794.3 million (USD123 million) while revenue was up 26.2 percent to CNY253.8 billion (USD39.16 billion) based on generally accepted accounting principles.

The Beijing-based firm added 120,000 employees over the last year, bringing the total to 400,000, it said. It also opened 450 new warehouses, a 60 percent year on year increase, giving it a total storage space of 23 million square meters as of June 30.

This hiked investment caused its logistics arm to lose CNY360 million (USD55.5 million) in the second quarter, compared with a gain of CNY2.1 billion (USD324 million) a year earlier. Losses from its new businesses, including infrastructure property management service provider JD Industrial Development, its budget online sales platform Jingxi and its overseas businesses nearly doubled to CNY3 billion.

JD.com has set up an internal monitoring system to ensure it keeps in line with national regulations, such as data security, Xu Lei, chief executive of JD Retail, said at the earnings conference call yesterday. Regulators have recently introduced a slew of new rules to rein in internet-based giants.

Editor: Kim Taylor