China's budget ecommerce site Pinduoduo now growing in first-tier cities
Pinduoduo seeks to shed its reputation as a destination for cheap knockoff goods
Pinduoduo, a Chinese ecommerce platform that is seeking to dispel an association with price-sensitive customers, said it gained more customers from the nation’s most developed cities, a feat that would bolster its challenge against more established rivals Alibaba Group Holding and JD.com.
Pinduoduo: China’s hottest online shopping startup
“When we were listed a year ago and unfamiliar to most people, despite our consistent messaging, some competitors tried to frame us as a platform that would only attract price-sensitive users in lower tier cities, and that our products are cheap because they are low quality or even knockoffs,” said Huang, who is also chairman and chief executive. “Today, our results have firmly demonstrated otherwise.”
In China, where you live determines the tech you use
The latest estimates by Pinduoduo may reinforce its efforts to challenge what it described as “forced exclusivity” in the ecommerce market, where merchants and customers are constrained to a certain platform or choice of payment method.
In April, Huang called for more open competition that would benefit both merchants and consumers. Shanghai-based Pinduoduo has provided alternatives in term of its logistics waybill systems, cloud computing services and payment system.
Pinduoduo has accused its larger ecommerce rivals of freezing out upstarts through their dominance in various industries.
The country’s biggest ecommerce services provider, Alibaba, for example, developed and deployed its own logistics network Cainiao and online payment system Alipay, while excluding similar offerings such as WeChat Pay from rival Tencent Holdings. Social media giant Tencent, meanwhile, blocks links to Alibaba’s Taobao Marketplace from opening within its flagship messaging and social media app WeChat.