Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com said Wednesday that there is a misunderstanding about the abolition of its brand division.

JD.com formally announced on Tuesday that it had abolished the group's brand division, transferring its responsibilities and personnel to the marketing department - Platform Marketing, Leiphone.com previously reported.

JD.com allegedly made the move to achieve the goal of streamlining its organization and improving the efficiency of its service business.

The news sparked heated debate in some PR brand communities in China.

Some took the brand division as the PR department and speculated, "Is it going to follow Tesla's example of dismantling its PR department back in the day?"

In response, a JD.com insider told TechWire on Wednesday, "There may be some misunderstanding [about this] in the outside world."

"The fact is that the brand division is a smaller department responsible for such things as standardizing and auditing materials that relate to the company's brand image."

The source added, "The restructuring is also not an abolition, but a transfer from one line to another, specifically under the retail business."

"The brand division has had structural adjustments before, when it was adjusted from retail to the group, and this time it was moved back to retail, which is a very normal change," the person noted.

JD.com realized revenues of 115.88 billion yuan in 2024, up 6.8% year-on-year, according to its latest earnings results.

The company also reported net income attributable to ordinary shareholders of 41.4 billion yuan in 2024, much higher than the 24.2 billion yuan in 2023.