China Has an Ecommerce Giant You’ve Never Heard Of

Li Suzhi scrolls through the front page of Chinese ecommerce app Pinduoduo, browsing T-shirts, electronics, and fruit, all priced at a fraction of the cost of similar products on other platforms. Shoppers like Li—price conscious and far from China’s big cities—have made Pinduoduo China’s hottest ecommerce player. Rebecca Fannin, author of three books on China, calls Pinduoduo “a Chinese Groupon on steroids.” Ashley Dudarenok, coauthor of the recently published New Retail: Born in China Going Global: How Chinese Tech Giants are Changing Global Commerce, says Pinduoduo tapped an opening to “educate rural users to use online shopping.” She says rural Chinese are less brand-conscious than their urban counterparts, and so more amenable to Pinduoduo’s browsing-based system. Andy Mok, research fellow “Pinduoduo has been very successful with their ‘team buying’ model, and by offering products at the lowest prices, but they need to expand beyond these for long-term sustainability,” says Michael Zakkour, coauthor with Dudarenok of New Retail. He says Pinduoduo needs to “break free from the idea that they are a ‘one trick pony.’” Victor Tseng, Pinduoduo’s VP of corporate affairs, says the company “will continue improving and iterate fast.” As a 4-year-old company, “we should be investing more aggressively,” he says, but adds the company is learning to invest more efficiently.