Pinduoduo Inc. (Chinese: 拼多多; Pinyin: Pīn duōduō) is a Chinese online retailer with a focus on the traditional agriculture industry.[2][3][4][5]
The business is the largest product of PDD Holdings, which also owns Temu.[6] It generated RMB 2.44 trillion (US$383 billion) gross merchandise value (GMV) in 2021.[7][8]
During the initial Chinese COVID lockdown in 2020, Pinduoduo started a program to assist rural Chinese farmers with selling their produce to customers online instead of relying on traditional in-person marketplaces.[10] In August 2020, Pinduoduo launched Duo Duo Maicai, a service which enables consumers to preorder groceries for pickup at designated locations.[11]
In September 2022, Pinduoduo's sister's company, Temu, was launched in the U.S. by PDD Holdings.[12][13][14] In 2023, Pinduoduo changed its legal domicile from Shanghai to Dublin.[15]
Controversy
In 2018, Pinduoduo came under scrutiny following a spate of negative press calling the company out for inferior and imitation of products.[16] The company responded with an open letter stating that it had, in a single week in August, shut down 1,128 stores, taken down more than 4 million listings, and blocked 450,000 suspected counterfeit goods listings from being published.[17] The company also disclosed that it had removed 500,715 items and closed more than 40 stores as of February 4, 2020, to protect consumers from counterfeit and substandard masks being sold by merchants hoping to profit amid the pandemic.[18]
On June 7, 2018, Legal Evening News reported that Pinduoduo investigated and shut down stores and removed listings that violated its platform policy against pornography and violence, following an earlier report by the newspaper.[19]
On January 20, 2019, Pinduoduo reported to the police theft by hackers that exploited a loophole in his system and stole tens of millions of Yuan worth of vouchers.[20]
On July 5, 2022, a Shanghai court dismissed a local resident's lawsuit accusing Pinduoduo of cheating in a promotional event.[21]
In 2023, Google removed Pinduoduo's app from the Play Store due to security concerns after it was found to contain malware.[24][25] Six cybersecurity teams interviewed by CNN – including Finnish, Russian, US, and Israeli firms – as well as Chinese cybersecurity firm DarkNavy, all labeled Pinduoduo as malware or potential malware.[26]
