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The Chinese Site That Rewired Online Shopping
Pinduoduo appeals to people seeking deals and “downgraded spending,” as consumer purchasing in China has slowed recently amid economic rockiness.
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The Shanghai headquarters of Pinduoduo, an e-commerce platform, in 2018.Credit...ChinaTopix, via Associated Press
By Daisuke Wakabayashi and Claire Fu
April 22, 2024, 12:01 a.m. ET
When Pinduoduo, the Chinese discount shopping app, debuted nearly a decade ago, the tech giants Alibaba and JD.com dominated China’s e-commerce business.
Pinduoduo felt more like a gimmick than a future rival. It was a combination of a game arcade, a shopping mall and a social network. Its main selling point was lower prices for shoppers who recruited other buyers to make group purchases. Customers could pass the time by playing video games or earn money by logging in daily to browse the app.
Now, no one is taking the company lightly.
Pinduoduo is the sister company of Temu, the bargain shopping app that has amassed tens of millions of users outside China, including in the United States, where it is spending billions of dollars on promotion. Americans who haven’t used Temu yet have probably seen its Super Bowl ads or Instagram posts.
Like TikTok, Temu is the foreign version of a highly successful Chinese company. As its popularity has grown in the United States, its business practices have also come under scrutiny. Members of Congress have questioned whether it is providing a U.S. channel for products that are made in China using forced labor. It has encountered criticism for its labor practices and failure to enforce intellectual property laws.
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Inside China, Pinduoduo has also been gaining more attention. As a popular destination for inexpensive groceries and household items, it is now closing in on JD, China’s second-biggest online retailer, in terms of market share. And when it briefly overtook Alibaba as the country’s most valuable e-commerce firm last year, Alibaba’s founder, Jack Ma, sent an internal memo imploring his company to “change and adapt” to keep up.
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A Beijing distribution center for the Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com in 2020.Credit...Ng Han Guan/Associated Press
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Daisuke Wakabayashi is an Asia business correspondent for The Times based in Seoul, covering economic, corporate and geopolitical stories from the region. More about Daisuke Wakabayashi
Claire Fu covers China with a focus on business and social issues in the country. She is based in Seoul. More about Claire Fu
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