"Pinduoduo is not a traditional company. It was born when everyone felt that the e-commerce landscape had been established and the history book had been written. In just three years, it gathered over 300 million users and over a million sellers to jointly establish a new shopping model. Its rapid growth indicates that it has enormous potential and infinite possibilities for the future."
In 2018, Pinduoduo envisioned the future in its first letter to shareholders after going public. On May 22nd, during a conference call after the release of the first quarter financial report, Chen Lei, Chairman and Co CEO of Pinduoduo Group, once again mentioned in the "Letter to Shareholders": "Pinduoduo is not a traditional company and will not deliberately smooth financial report data."
On May 22nd, Pinduoduo (Nasdaq: PDD) once again presented its impressive performance report: total revenue of 86.812 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 131%; The net profit attributable to the parent company was 27.998 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 246%.
Chen Lei explained that there will inevitably be fluctuations in performance, sometimes "too good" and sometimes "deviation", but as long as we continue to focus on long-term value creation, all these fluctuations will eventually return to the continuously accumulated and growing endogenous value.
Embarking on a different path from traditional e-commerce
In a previous media interview, the founder team of Pinduoduo talked about the differences between Pinduoduo and other e-commerce platforms, "This is a kind of misplaced competition, with different scenarios. The previous generation of e-commerce was more focused on purposeful search shopping, while Pinduoduo was more focused on non purposeful shopping."
In Pinduoduo's first shareholder letter, it was written: "We believe that Pinduoduo has enormous potential. Looking back at whether it will take 3 years, 5 years, or even longer to go public, there is actually no substantial difference. On the contrary, under public supervision, we can grow better and stronger."
How has Pinduoduo overturned traditional e-commerce in the context of new traffic distribution forms, new user interaction forms, and new internationalization? The answer may be written in "high-quality development", which is the endogenous value repeatedly mentioned by Pinduoduo.
In an interview with The Paper, Zhao Jiazhen, Executive Director and Co CEO of Pinduoduo Group, and Chen Lei, Chairman and Co CEO of Pinduoduo Group, stated that under the guidance of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and relevant departments, Pinduoduo fully utilizes the advantages of Shanghai's business environment, accelerates its transformation towards "high-quality development", and is committed to creating a "more affordable+good service" platform ecosystem, contributing to the development of Shanghai's online new economy.
Technological innovation is an important engine for achieving high-quality development. Since its establishment, the company has spared no effort in technological research and development, polishing its supply chain capabilities through technological innovation, and promoting cost reduction and efficiency improvement in the supply chain.
Duoduo Cross border is still fighting a tough battle
The outside world is very concerned about the progress of Pinduoduo Group's global business.
In a conference call, Chen Lei said, "Currently, as high-quality development enters the deep water zone, the company is still in a period of growth and investment. We will remain steadfast in investing in opportunities with value creation potential. We are not guided by short-term goals and will continue to focus on creating long-term value. This is reflected in all aspects of our business, including global operations."
Chen Lei mentioned that Duoduo Cross border is still in the exploration stage and there is still a lot of room for improvement. "We are fully prepared to embrace and respond to market changes and challenges with a positive and proactive attitude, and consider it an important opportunity to enhance our own abilities."
Public information shows that Duoduo Cross border was launched in September 2022 and has currently promoted high-quality products from over a hundred manufacturing industry belts across the country, entering more than 50 countries and regions worldwide.
Chen Lei stated that during the tough battle, we will not overly focus on the short-term growth of Duoduo Cross border, but rather practice our internal skills, consolidate our foundation, and strengthen our supply chain, compliance, and service capabilities. "When these capabilities come together to bring more and more value to consumers from different countries and businesses seeking international market expansion, we hope that the platform can also gain more market and audience welcome and recognition."
He believes that legal and compliant operation is a prerequisite for the high-quality development of platform enterprises. In today's highly integrated digital technology and modern commerce, consumers and regulatory authorities have put forward higher requirements for e-commerce platforms. "As a platform oriented enterprise, we take the initiative to take responsibility, invest resources and strive to build first-class compliance capabilities in the industry, empower small and medium-sized businesses on the platform, and cultivate a group of serious and compliant small and medium-sized businesses to do business."
"We always choose the former between consumer safety and economic benefits. We are well aware that a good platform compliance ecosystem is a prerequisite for gaining long-term trust from consumers, and it will also attract more and more high-quality merchants to join. Good coins drive out bad coins," said Chen Lei.
Deeply cultivate the basic foundation of agriculture
In the past two years, Pinduoduo Group's R&D investment has exceeded the 10 billion yuan mark. In the first quarter of this year, the company invested 2.9 billion yuan to support research and development, a year-on-year increase of 16%. Chen Lei stated that he will continue to increase investment in research and development, accumulate easy-to-use tools and services, further empower businesses, and promote industrial digital upgrading.
Agriculture is the fundamental foundation of Pinduoduo. As the largest agricultural product upstream platform in the country, Pinduoduo not only optimizes the circulation chain of agricultural products, but also fully supports the development of agriculture through science and technology, actively contributing to the promotion of agricultural technology to rural areas and the transformation of scientific research achievements.
In the first quarter, Pinduoduo deeply supported the finals of the second Science and Technology Academy Competition, which not only built a stage for young students nationwide to learn and exchange cutting-edge agricultural technologies, but also contributed to the promotion of the 3.0+version of Science and Technology Academy, attracting more attention and support for the achievements of Science and Technology Academy in understanding people's livelihoods and governing knowledge. Pinduoduo continues to tilt and support resources towards characteristic agricultural and sideline products such as oranges, pomelo, kiwifruit, and fresh flowers, which are the focus of research by the Science and Technology Academy, to help farmers increase their income and rural revitalization.
This quarter, the fourth "Duoduo Agricultural Research Technology Competition" global recruitment was officially launched. Pinduoduo, as the organizer, aims to attract more innovative talents and enterprises to participate in agricultural technology innovation and jointly promote the transformation and upgrading of traditional agriculture by leading the creation of an agricultural technology innovation competition. It is understood that multiple competition achievements have been written into papers or entered the patent substantive examination and acceptance stage, and a series of innovative technologies formed during the competition process have been put into use on the front line of agricultural production after practical demonstration.
With high-quality development entering the deep water zone, Pinduoduo Group is also in a period of growth and investment. Zhao Jiazhen stated that high-quality development is a long-term, massive, and complex systematic project. In the future, continuous investment will be made in three aspects: consumption, supply, compliance, and platform ecology. "We will gather all forces, solidly promote and implement, and accelerate the achievement of the goals and tasks of this new stage of development."
Chen Lei also emphasized that the e-commerce industry is in a rapid development stage, and competition and opportunities are accelerating to emerge. "The development of a company's business is not linear, but fluctuates. However, we believe that as long as we continue to focus on long-term value creation, all performance fluctuations will ultimately return to the endogenous value we continuously accumulate and grow."