Pinduoduo loses exclusive partnership with CCTV for China’s Spring Festival Gala

China Central Television is said to have cancelled its exclusive advertising deal with Pinduoduo for this year’s Spring Festival Gala

The annual event has been a promotional battleground among China’s largest internet companies since virtual red packets were introduced in 2015

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E-commerce giant Pinduoduo is not expected to give away cash via virtual red packets at this year’s Spring Festival Gala, the country’s most-watched national network TV broadcast. Photo: SCMP

Che Pan,Minghe Huin BeijingandYujie Xuein Shenzhen

Published: 8:14pm, 15 Jan 2021Updated: 11:44pm, 15 Jan 2021

State broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) has cancelled its exclusive advertising deal with e-commerce giant Pinduoduo for this year’s Spring Festival Gala, the country’s most-watched national network TV broadcast, as the company remains embroiled in a controversy over working conditions, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter.

Pinduoduo, operator of China’s second-largest e-commerce platform, landed an exclusive advertising package deal worth about 1 billion yuan (US$154 million) with CCTV in September last year. The deal involves giving away cash via virtual red packets at the Spring Festival Gala, which has been a promotional battleground among China’s largest internet companies since Alipay and WeChat first introduced virtual red packets in 2015.

“CCTV felt recent public opinion [about Pinduoduo] was quite bad, so they decided to end the deal,” said one person, who asked for anonymity because the information was still private.

China Central Television’s 2020 Spring Festival Gala was seen by more than 1.2 billion people on TV and on the internet in more than 170 countries. Photo: Handout

One source said ByteDance-owned short-video sharing app operator Douyin, which runs the Chinese version of TikTok, has been in contact with the CCTV to replace Pinduoduo in the event, but no deal has been reached.

Pinduoduo and ByteDance did not immediately respond to inquiries for comment.