Cornlike ordered N-doped carbon coated hollow Fe3O4 (OH-Fe3O4@NC) composites are prepared through a facile strategy. The unique structure is composed of hundreds of N-doped carbon coated hollow Fe3O4 nanospheres. Successive carbon shell and hollow structure address the irreversibility issue of Fe3O4-based electrodes. Owing to the unique cornlike ordered structure, the as-prepared OH-Fe3O4@NC composites exhibit appealing electrochemical performance as anode materials for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). It delivers a high reversible capacity of 1316 mA h g(-1) at 0.1 A g(-1) after 50 cycles and a remarkable rate performance (725, 551 and 361 mA h g(-1) at 1, 4, and 10 A g(-1), respectively). Our results demonstrate that the OH-Fe3O4@NC composites are the promising anode materials with high capacity for next generation LIBs.