bodyType

customContents

entityId

printArticlePageQuery

filter

article

body

urlAlias

articleSectionsContent

articleSeoArticle

articleSourceHeaderArticle

contentSchemaRenderContent

contentSubHeadlineContent

contentHeadlineContent

mainImagePrintArticleArticle

authorBlockPrintArticleArticle

contentSponsorTagContent

articlePianoPaywallContent

scmpYoutubeContent

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

query printArticlePageQuery(
  $entityId: String!
  $customContents: [CustomContentInput]
  $bodyType: BodyFormatTypeEnum
) {
  article(filter: {entityId: $entityId}) {
    entityId
    body(customContents: $customContents, type: $bodyType) {
      json
    }
    urlAlias
    ...articleSectionsContent
    ...articleSeoArticle_3o8td4
    ...articleSourceHeaderArticle
    ...contentSchemaRenderContent
    ...contentSubHeadlineContent
    ...contentHeadlineContent
    ...mainImagePrintArticleArticle
    ...authorBlockPrintArticleArticle
    ...contentSponsorTagContent
    ...articlePianoPaywallContent
    ...scmpYoutubeContent
    ...hooksTrackPageViewArticle
    id
  }
}

fragment articlePianoPaywallContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksPaywallPromiseContent
}

fragment articleSectionsContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sections {
    value {
      ...helpersCheckIfNewsSectionInFirstIndexSection
      ...entityLink
      name
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment articleSeoArticle_3o8td4 on Article {
  ...hooksArticleSeoArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersGetArticleTypeArticle
  entityId
  publishedDate
  updatedDate
  summary {
    text
  }
  subHeadline {
    text
  }
  body(customContents: $customContents, type: $bodyType) {
    text
  }
  keywords
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  topics {
    name
    entityId
    id
  }
  urlAlias
  authors {
    name
    id
  }
  images {
    style(filter: {style: "768x768"}) {
      url
    }
  }
  readingTime
}

fragment articleSourceHeaderArticle on Article {
  urlAlias
  ...entityLink
}

fragment authorBlockPrintArticleArticle on Article {
  ...defaultArticleDateContent
  ...authorNamesArticle
}

fragment authorNameAuthor on Author {
  ...entityLink
  name
  entityUuid
}

fragment authorNamesArticle on Article {
  authorLocations
  authors {
    entityId
    location
    ...authorNameAuthor
    id
  }
}

fragment blockquoteQuoteContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...contentShareWidgetContent
}

fragment checkersCheckContentContainsStarlingImageContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment contentHeadlineContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  headline
  socialHeadline
  ...contentHeadlineTagContent
  ...helpersUseContentSponsorContent
}

fragment contentHeadlineTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksContentHeadlineTagContent
}

fragment contentNewsletterWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    relatedNewsletters {
      ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
      id
    }
    id
  }
  sections {
    value {
      relatedNewsletters {
        ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
        id
      }
      id
    }
  }
  ... on Article {
    relatedNewsletters {
      ...helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment contentSchemaRenderContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...blockquoteQuoteContent
  ...imageContent
  ...inlineWidgetContent
  ...photoGalleryWidgetContent
  ...scmpYoutubeContent
}

fragment contentShareWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  urlAlias
  shortUrl
  socialHeadline
  headline
}

fragment contentSponsorTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...helpersUseContentSponsorContent
}

fragment contentSubHeadlineContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  subHeadline {
    json
  }
  summary {
    json
  }
  ...contentSchemaRenderContent
}

fragment defaultArticleDateContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...hooksArticleDateUtilsContent
}

fragment entityLink on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  __typename
  entityId
  entityUuid
  urlAlias
  urlRedirect {
    toUrl
    id
  }
  application {
    entityId
    id
  }
  ... on Section {
    fullSectionPath {
      entityId
      id
    }
    parentSection
  }
  ...helpersAppBarVariantBase
  ...helpersApplicationBase
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusArticle
  ...helpersStyleSectionContent
}

fragment helpersAppBarVariantBase on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  ...helpersCheckIsLiveArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  ...helpersSectionContent
  ...helpersStyleSectionContent
}

fragment helpersApplicationBase on BaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias {
  __isBaseWithApplicationAndUrlAlias: __typename
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesPage
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusPage
}

fragment helpersCheckIfNewsSectionInFirstIndexSection on Section {
  name
}

fragment helpersCheckIsAmpEnabledArticle on Article {
  entityId
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  disableOffPlatformContent
  sponsorType
  published
  ...helpersCheckIsPlusArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
}

fragment helpersCheckIsLiveArticle on Article {
  flattenTypeIds
  liveArticle {
    status
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsMainTopicContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPlusArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ... on Article {
    paywallTypes {
      entityUuid
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPlusPage on Page {
  urlAlias
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle on Article {
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle on Article {
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersCheckIsPostiesPage on Page {
  urlAlias
}

fragment helpersCheckIsStyleArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  sections {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersGetArticleTypeArticle on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ... on Article {
    types {
      value {
        entityId
        id
      }
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersMassageToNewsletterItemNewsletter on Newsletter {
  entityId
  name
  alternativeName
  description {
    text
  }
  summary {
    text
  }
  homepageDescription {
    text
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizeArticleTypeEntityIdsArticle on Article {
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizeAuthorTypesArticle on Article {
  authors {
    types
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersSanitizedAuthorEntityIdsArticle on Article {
  authors {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersSectionContent on Section {
  fullSectionPath {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersStyleSectionContent on Section {
  fullSectionPath {
    entityId
    id
  }
}

fragment helpersUseContentSponsorContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  topics {
    entityId
    sponsor {
      ...sponsorTagSponsor
      name
      type
      id
    }
    id
  }
  ... on Article {
    sponsorType
  }
  ...helpersCheckIsMainTopicContent
}

fragment hooksArticleDateUtilsContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  createdDate
  publishedDate
  updatedDate
}

fragment hooksArticleSeoArticle on Article {
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsPostMagazineArticle
  ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  ...hooksContentHeadlineTagContent
  ...helpersCheckIsAmpEnabledArticle
  entityId
  headline
  socialHeadline
  types {
    value {
      entityId
      id
    }
  }
  authors {
    entityId
    id
  }
  images {
    generic_og: style(filter: {style: "og_image_scmp_generic"}) {
      url
    }
    styles(filter: {styles: ["og_image_posties_article", "og_postmag", "og_image_style", "og_image_scmp_analysis", "og_image_scmp_explainer", "og_image_scmp_editorial", "og_image_scmp_fact_check", "og_image_scmp_debate", "og_image_scmp_live", "og_image_scmp_obituary", "og_image_scmp_opinion", "og_image_scmp_review", "og_image_scmp_series", "og_image_scmp_generic"]}) {
      url
      style
    }
    type
  }
  urlAlias
}

fragment hooksContentHeadlineTagContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  ... on Article {
    types {
      value {
        name
        entityId
        description {
          text
        }
        id
      }
    }
    ...helpersCheckIsStyleArticle
  }
  flag
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  ...hooksContentHelperContent
}

fragment hooksContentHelperContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...helpersSanitizeArticleTypeEntityIdsArticle
  ...helpersSanitizeAuthorTypesArticle
  ...helpersSanitizedAuthorEntityIdsArticle
  flag
}

fragment hooksPaywallPromiseContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  ...helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle
}

fragment hooksTrackPageViewArticle on Article {
  entityId
  publishedDate
  headline
  sections {
    value {
      name
      id
    }
  }
  urlAlias
  authors {
    name
    id
  }
  entityUuid
}

fragment imageContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  headline
  ...checkersCheckContentContainsStarlingImageContent
}

fragment inlineWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...contentNewsletterWidgetContent
}

fragment mainImagePrintArticleArticle on Article {
  images {
    title
    url
    isSlideshow
    size_652x446: style(filter: {style: "652x446"}) {
      url
    }
  }
}

fragment photoGalleryDialogContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  __typename
  ...contentShareWidgetContent
}

fragment photoGalleryWidgetContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  ...photoGalleryDialogContent
}

fragment scmpYoutubeContent on Content {
  __isContent: __typename
  entityId
  urlAlias
  publishedDate
}

fragment sponsorTagSponsor on Sponsor {
  name
  type
  images {
    url
  }
}


sections

types

disableOffPlatformContent

sponsorType

published

headline

socialHeadline

authors

images

publishedDate

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

keywords

topics

readingTime

authorLocations

entityUuid

Karen Chiu

Taobao and JD.com have dominated online shopping in China for years. But now there's a new kid on the block -- and Pinduoduo is nothing like its rivals.
(Abacus is a unit of the South China Morning Post, which is owned by Alibaba -- the owner of Taobao.)
The company, founded by an ex-Googler, listed on the Nasdaq in July 2018 to much fanfare, raising more than US$1.6 billion. Still unprofitable right now, Pinduoduo has grown by targeting price-conscious shoppers in lower-tier cities -- but some of them say the chase for a good deal can, at times, lead to disappointing purchases.

Pinduoduo 101
If Amazon, Groupon and Facebook had a baby in China, it would probably look a lot like Pinduoduo.
Its name means “shop more together” in Chinese. The idea is to turn online shopping into a social experience. But it’s more sophisticated than just showing off what you’ve bought to your friends -- being social actually delivers better prices.
Here’s how it works: You message your friends about an item you like. If they want it too, you can join together in a group purchase to get a discount. The items are then delivered individually to each of you. Everyone is happy.

Using the app reminds me a lot of going to a wet market in China: It’s noisy, it’s crowded and you’re trying your best to get a bargain. Say you are interested in buying some garlic. They sell for 29.9 yuan (US$4.39) if you buy them on your own, or 4.9 yuan (US$0.72) if you buy them with someone else. Why would you pay more?

While you’re deciding whether to spend your hard-earned money -- possibly for something you didn’t even want to buy in the first place -- Pinduoduo isn’t going to leave anything to chance. Just like any eager market vendor, Pinduoduo will try to remind you what a great deal you could be getting by bombarding you with a stream of pop-up messages, showing users who have just successfully found friends to buy together with.
You can share information about a product on social apps like WeChat or QQ, inviting friends and families to join along a purchase. But if none of them are taking the bait, don’t despair. Scroll down and you can also see in real-time a list of users who are trying to find a buying partner. You can join one of them by clicking “buy together”. Alternatively, you can make a purchase on your own first and message your friends later to join in for a group deal.
Social Ecommerce
The idea of combining social with online shopping isn’t new. For instance, Instagram’s “shoppable photos” let users tap on products tagged in a post to get to an online store. But Pinduoduo is different in that it adds a huge incentive with discounts.
Pinduoduo’s filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission says that as of March, its platform had reached 295 million active customers and more than 1 million merchants. According to the China Internet Report, Pinduoduo is now China’s third most popular shopping app, trailing only behind JD.com and Taobao.

The app is particularly popular among users in their 30s living in so-called third-tier cities, who are often less well-off than their peers in Shanghai or Beijing. But there are questions about whether Pinduoduo’s image as a discount retailer means it will only find success in lower-end markets.
Founder Colin Huang told Chinese media it’s wrong to divide customers into tiers. Instead, he believes all customers have multiple layers of needs -- and the goal of Pinduoduo is to fulfill one of them.
“We attract people who want value-for-money. [The typical customer] will buy a Hermès bag, and also a box of mangoes that costs 9.9 yuan. [Their shopping habit] has nothing to do with their spending power,” he said.
By turning online shopping into an entertainment, it hopes to keep customers hooked -- a model he compares to a combination of Costco and Disneyland.

Huang believes he's creating the future of online shopping.
“If you look at the entire e-commerce market, its form is changing dramatically. The success model for Alibaba today is not necessarily the success model for tomorrow,” he wrote in 2016. “Our team are probably 20 years behind Alibaba, but I believe we might have a chance to build a different Alibaba.”
Knockoffs and fakes?
But just like Alibaba’s Taobao, Pinduoduo is facing accusation of being a counterfeit peddler. Browsing around the app, we found what looks like a PlayStation (US$8 including 500 games and three controllers), a smartphone called vjvj X21S that costs US$67 (the Vivo X21, which actually looks quite different, costs US$365), and an “i5”-branded notebook that has an Apple logo on the back (US$73).

In a news report from May that Pinduoduo linked to on their website, Huang said their quality control efforts are are still in infancy, but they’re working to “upgrade supply chains and fight fakes.” Following a spate of criticisms, the company said this month it shut down more than 1,100 stores and removed 4.3 million suspicious listings in just one week.
From Silicon Valley to Shanghai
After last month’s IPO, Huang’s US$13.8 fortune has made his China’s 12th richest person and among the world’s 100 richest people.
The son of factory workers, Huang showed exceptional mathematical talents at a young age. After winning a Math Olympiad contest, his suburban elementary school urged him to apply to the prestigious Hangzhou Foreign Languages School -- one of very few high schools in China during the early 1990s that had foreign teachers and offered overseas exchange. He recalled watching Hollywood movies in class, a rare privilege in the country at that time.

From there, Huang was admitted to an experimental gifted education program in Zhejiang University, where he enjoyed the freedom to study advanced science and engineering without picking a major in the first two years.
In 2004, after graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a master degree in computer science, he joined Google as a software engineer and later became a product manager. He returned to China two years later to help set up Google China, but after a year, left to found his first startup, an electronics e-commerce site called Ouku.com.
In 2015, he introduced Pinhaohuo -- a fruit-selling platform that adopted many of the social elements you see in Pinduoduo today. With millions of dollars under his belt, Huang launched Pinduoduo, which sells a wider range of products than Pinhaohuo. The two platforms merged the next year and retained the name of Pinduoduo.



Pinduoduo: China’s hottest online shopping startup

Colin Huang, founder and CEO of Pinduoduo, speaks in Shanghai as the company debuts on New York's Nasdaq on July 26, 2018. 

Explained

Pinduoduo is an online shopping platform that gives users discounts for purchasing in groups. Founded by former Google employee Colin Huang, it's been China's third most popular shopping app since July 2017.


Abacus - China Tech News