By Deborah Mary Sophia and Sophie Yu

(Reuters) -Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com is going all out to build its instant-delivery business to diversify revenue, but breaking into the competitive industry is proving difficult.

The company has poured billions into JD Takeaway, the food-delivery unit it launched in February, to cut reliance on a core retail business hit by a weak economy and tough competition.

Its results on Thursday showed the service has lifted its user base, traffic and revenue, with both quarterly active customer growth and shopping frequency up more than 40%.

But it is struggling to take market share from long-established incumbents Meituan, the industry leader, and Alibaba’s Ele.me.

Daily active users in JD’s delivery business have fallen steadily since peaking in mid

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