Since this year, Pinduoduo has accelerated its strategic transformation from fast to stable, from speed to quality. Currently, Pinduoduo aims to integrate high-quality development across all domains of platform governance, merchant ecology, high-quality supply chain, and high-quality consumption.
Pinduoduo Holdings Inc (hereinafter referred to as "Pinduoduo", Chinese: 拼多多, NASDAQ: PDD), headquartered in Shanghai, recently released its first 2023 quarterly report. In Q1 2023, the company achieved revenue of CNY 37.64 billion (USD 5.33 billion), up 58.2% year-over-year, and net income of CNY 8.10 billion, a 212% increase from the same period last year. In terms of business segments, Pinduoduo's transaction services business revenue was CNY 10.39 billion, up 86% over the previous year, accounting for 28% of total revenue; online marketing service and others business revenue was CNY 27.24 billion, 50% higher than in the previous year, accounting for 72% of total revenue. The primary drivers of revenue growth for the two business segments encompass amplified merchant advertising volume, enhanced advertising efficacy, and substantial expansion in revenue from services such as Pinduoduo's grocery services.
Founded in 2015, Pinduoduo is a leading e-commerce platform that offers a wide range of products from daily groceries to home appliances. The company has achieved rapid growth through its "Social + e-commerce" model. As of Q1 2023, the user scale and activity of Poundudo continued to grow, with the number of annual active buyers reaching 910 million, up 10% year-on-year, and the average monthly active users reaching 790 million, a 9% increase from the same period last year, growing rapidly into the top three domestic e-commerce platforms.
Since 2021, Pingduoduo has continued to attach great importance to R&D investment after initiating its strategic transformation. In Q1 2023, the company’s R&D investment increased by 4.2% year-over-year to CNY 2.51 billion. The number of Pinduoduo's R&D team grew steadily by 15% in 2022, accounting for about half of the total number of employees. Pinduoduo also announced that it will set up a "10 billion ecology" special project. This special project aims to tilt the resources of high-quality merchants and goods, promote the quality growth of small and medium-sized enterprises and high-quality merchants, and improve the overall service efficiency and quality of platform merchants.
For the overseas market, Pinduoduo has accelerated its globalization strategy. In September of 2022, Temu app, the international version of the Pinduoduo app, successfully penetrated the high-consumption market in the United States and quickly rose to become the second most widely used shopping application, trailing only Amazon, within a span of slightly over one month. According to the world’s leading mobile intelligence firm Sensor, As of the month concluding on March 26, 2023, TEMU has achieved the highest number of downloads among all applications available on the official Apple and Google App stores in the United States. Additionally, TEMU has maintained a dominant position in the free shopping app category in the United States for a period of 170 days. Currently, Temu has established a significant presence in almost 50% of the worldwide e-commerce market, operating in ten countries across four continents, including Canada, New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, France, Spain, etc. It is noteworthy that TEMU's overseas expansion has occurred within a relatively short period of seven months.
The major competitors of Pinduoduo mainly include Chinese companies such as Taobao (Chinese: 淘宝), Tmall (Chinese: 天猫), JD.com (Chinese: 京东) and Suning Commerce (Chinese: 苏宁易购), as well as international players such as Amazon and eBay from the US.
As of press time, Pinduoduo closed at USD 71.42 apiece, with a market cap of USD 94.89 billion.