REUTERS: Chinese e-commerce platform Pinduoduo Inc’s quarterly revenue beat Wall Street estimates on Wednesday, driven by steady demand for online shopping following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pinduoduo has led China’s adoption of social e-commerce, by meshing online shopping with social media. Buyers can avail greater discounts when shopping in bigger groups, which has helped the Shanghai-based company challenge bigger rivals Alibaba and JD.com .
Active buyers on Pinduoduo in the 12-month period ended March rose 31per cent to about 824 million, outpacing Alibaba’s 811 million.
Total revenue more than tripled to 22.17 billion yuan (US$3.47 billion)in the first quarter, boosted by Pinduoduo’s online marketing services revenue. Analysts on average had expected revenue of 20.2 billion yuan, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
A relatively new platform, Pinduoduo is still to gain a stronghold in the Chinese e-commerce sector dominated by its larger rivals where per person spending is a lot higher. Its results also come as Beijing looks to rein in its internet giants.
In March, Chinese regulators fined Pinduoduo along with several other e-commerce companies for their misleading price tactics, in a move to increase regulation of community group buying.
The interactive buying platform’s net loss attributable to shareholders narrowed to 2.91 billion yuan in the quarter ended March 31, from 4.12 billion yuan a year earlier.
(US$1 = 6.3948 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru and Sophie Yu in Beijing; Editing by Maju Samuel)
