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Pinduoduo
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Pinduoduo’s active buyers inch ahead of rivals as e-commerce giant’s quarterly revenue more than triples

  • Pinduoduo’s results come as the company sharpens its focus on agriculture and online groceries
  • Shanghai-based e-commerce giant is also facing challenges at home and overseas due to US-China tech tensions and Beijing’s antitrust probes

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The logo of Pingduoduo is printed on a box set up in a shopping centre in China. Photo: Handout
Yujie Xuein Shenzhen
Pinduoduo cemented its position as China’s most used e-commerce platform in the first quarter as annual active buyers inched ahead of key rivals and revenue more than tripled year-on-year.
Pinduoduo said on Wednesday that active buyers in the twelve-month period ended March rose 31 per cent to 823.8 million from the same period a year ago. Alibaba Group Holding said on May 13 that active consumers on its e-commerce retail platforms rose 41 per cent in the last financial year to 811 million.

The e-commerce giant’s revenue jumped 239 per cent from last year to 22.17 billion yuan (US$3.3 billion) for the three months ended March, better than the 19.71 billion yuan expected in a Bloomberg poll of 13 analysts. The Nasdaq-listed company’s adjusted loss per share narrowed by 44 per cent to 1.52 yuan, beating the expectation of 2.25 yuan.

“Pinduoduo registered a strong quarter of revenue growth ahead of expectations, with its Duo Duo Grocery business driving user engagement,” said Natalie Wu, a managing director at Haitong International Research. “The strong growth in annual active users and monthly active users show that they are on the right track in terms of driving user engagement.”

Pinduoduo’s results come as the company sharpens its focus on agriculture and online groceries and after the surprise departure of founder Colin Huang in March, who handed over the reins as chairman to chief executive Chen Lei.

“As we work towards our goal of becoming the world’s largest agriculture and grocery platform, we must also seize the golden opportunity to transform and modernise the agri-food system,” said Chen Lei, chairman and chief executive at Pinduoduo, in a statement.

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