Chinese online retailer JD.com has launched a Russian-language website to broaden its operations outside its core China market.

In doing so, it is following in the tracks of its giant rival Alibaba, which has reportedly gained rapid popularity in Russia, despite the nation’s struggling economy and the domestic currency’s lacklustre value.

“Russia is Europe’s largest Internet market by audience and has fast-growing e-commerce,” said JD.com chief Victor Xu in a Moscow press conference to launch the new site.

“We aim to become a market leader in Russian eCommerce.”

According to research house TNS, the Aliexpress shopping site had 19.6 million Russian users in April, ranking it in the top 10 most popular sites in Russia with visitation up 65 per cent year on year.

Russia’s cross-border eCommerce market was worth US$4 billion last year with an estimated 70 million parcels shipped into the country from abroad. Nearly three quarters of that volume came from China.

JD.com has partnered with SPSR Express to deliver parcels in Russia and with Yandex.Money and Qiwi Plc to process online payments.