Alipay launches group-buy function within its app to take on social commerce players like Pinduoduo

Alibaba-affiliated mobile wallet Alipay has launched a group-buy function within its app to take on the likes of Pinduoduo, the social commerce start-up that has taken much of China by storm.

The feature, called Pintuan (meaning group-buy) can be found on the main interface of the Alipay app, where a selection of items are displayed at a discounted price if one or more users purchase the item together.

The products are from Taobao, Alibaba’s e-commerce platform, and prices can be reduced from their listing price. Unlike Pinduoduo, Alipay only offers these deals at specific times of the day – 9am, 2pm and 7pm – and in limited quantity.

Offering the feature within Alipay is also a step towards making the mobile wallet an all-in-one app. Currently Alipay is one of the leading mobile payments services in China, together with Tencent’s WeChat Pay. WeChat Pay is already integrated into WeChat, the superapp with over a billion users that lets you do everything from sending messages, ordering food, and even calling a cab. Similarly, Alipay has been adding more services within its app – such as taking out a loan, paying bills and even making hotel and flight bookings.

Alibaba is the parent company of the South China Morning Post.

The addition of such a function in Alipay underscores how much Pinduoduo has shaken up the e-commerce scene in China. Pinduoduo encourages users to share shopping deals with their friends to get discounts, and within three years became the third-largest e-commerce firm in the country, behind Alibaba and JD.com.

The company’s popular social commerce model has helped make Pinduoduo founder and chief executive Colin Huang one of China’s richest people, with a current net worth of US$10.5 billion after the company’s public listing on the Nasdaq valued the firm at US$24.98 billion.