On November 21st, Pinduoduo released its third quarter 2024 financial report. Benefiting from the stable recovery of macro consumption, Pinduoduo's performance remained stable, with revenue reaching 99.4 billion yuan for the quarter. Compared to the previous quarter, the revenue growth rate has slowed down. Meanwhile, the profit reached 25 billion yuan, a decrease of 22% compared to the previous period.
Industry insiders believe that in the past quarter, Pinduoduo's high-quality development strategy has entered a comprehensive acceleration stage, launching heavyweight measures such as "billions of yuan reduction", "e-commerce westward expansion", and "new quality merchant support plan", continuously expanding investment in ecological construction, and to some extent affecting short-term financial performance.
In the past quarter, we have launched a series of measures to reduce costs and increase income for businesses through real money refunds, reductions, and other means, promoting the industrial belt to enter a new stage of high-quality development. Zhao Jiazhen, Executive Director and Co CEO of Pinduoduo Group, believes that based on a large amount of investment on the supply side, the platform has provided users with a richer variety of agricultural, domestic, and global goods, further meeting the increasingly diversified consumption needs of users.
Multiple measures of "support+reduction" will be taken to continuously benefit both supply and demand sides
In the third quarter, Pinduoduo further increased its investment in platform ecology, promoting the deepening of ecological construction from the platform level to the industry level.
For example, in mid August, Pinduoduo launched a package of measures called "billion yuan reduction and exemption", successively launching multiple service fee refund rights, lowering the first use, then pay service fee, merchant store deposit, and withdrawal threshold, comprehensively reducing the operating costs of merchants. Many agricultural and domestic merchants only promote the refund of service fees, which can save hundreds of thousands of yuan every year, creating vitality and space for the transformation and upgrading of merchants and industrial belts.
In order to bring more benefits to users in remote areas such as the western region, Pinduoduo has also vigorously promoted the "E-commerce Westward Expansion" plan, exempting logistics transfer fees for orders from remote areas and allowing the platform to bear all costs, significantly reducing the express delivery fees for orders sent by merchants to remote areas. The express delivery fees for agricultural and fresh products, daily necessities and other categories have been reduced by up to 70%. The volume of express delivery orders in the western region has shown a significant increase compared to the previous period, greatly stimulating the enthusiasm of merchants to explore the western market and promoting economic vitality between the eastern and western regions.
After the "billion yuan reduction", Pinduoduo has fully launched the "New Quality Merchant Support Program", investing 10 billion yuan in resource packages to select new quality merchants and brands with product and technological innovation capabilities, and providing full chain support for products, marketing, operations, and supply chains. During the "Harvest Festival" event in early September alone, Pinduoduo invested 1 billion yuan in subsidy funds and 2 billion yuan in traffic resources to support new quality agricultural merchants such as Wenxian yam and Pinghe honey pomelo, promoting the export of seasonal agricultural products from villages to cities and helping agricultural production areas achieve high yields and increase income.
At present, the "New Quality Merchant Support Program" has penetrated dozens of industrial belts such as Cangzhou beauty brushes, Cixi small home appliances, Pingdu false eyelashes, Donghai wearable armor, etc., relying on the platform's digital technology to help local merchants move from primary processing to deep processing, from industrial white label to new quality brand, leading the industrial belt to accelerate high-quality development.
Thanks to the firm investment from the supply side, businesses have more motivation and space to innovate and upgrade their products and technologies, further meeting the increasingly diverse consumption concepts of users. Zhao Jiazhen said that from the perspective of consumption trends, users in first and second tier cities have bought more new mobile phones, high-end beauty brands, and healthy snacks, meeting personalized consumption needs; Third - and fourth tier and county-level users have purchased more high-end household appliances, maternal and child products, and fruits and seafood, achieving consumption upgrades.
Continue to increase long-term investment and comprehensively accelerate high-quality development
It is worth mentioning that as a platform that started in agriculture, Pinduoduo continued to increase its efforts in returning to agriculture in the third quarter and made multiple investments in the field of agricultural research.
On September 19th, on the eve of the Harvest Festival, Pinduoduo teamed up with representatives of teachers and students from 17 science and technology schools across the country to showcase nearly 20 new agricultural research achievements, including Northeast Sea Buckthorn Health Tea, Guangxi Beihai Fresh Shrimp Crisp, Sichuan Ebian Fresh Bamboo Shoots, and Yunnan Erhai Fragrant Rice, to the live audience. This event attracted a total of 18.5 million netizens to watch and place orders, achieving seamless integration between agricultural research and production practice, and industrial development.
Subsequently, the final of the fourth "Duoduo Agricultural Research Technology Competition" opened as scheduled. In the first stage of the finals, six agricultural research teams utilized cutting-edge agricultural technology to complete the innovative transformation of a "plant factory" in a container, exploring new ideas for scientific planting such as energy conservation and consumption reduction. Next, the final teams will enter the stage of intelligent planting competition, continuing to explore cutting-edge technologies and scenario applications in agricultural planting, injecting new vitality into the development of agricultural research.
On September 26th, the final of the "2024 Global Agricultural Maker Competition" initiated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and supported by Pinduoduo also opened. Dozens of young agricultural research entrepreneurs from multiple countries around the world showcased innovative solutions using digital technology to solve global agricultural problems. After the competition, Pinduoduo also led the winning team to participate in the 2024 World Food Forum hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Rome, promoting the innovative solutions of the contestants to global agricultural practitioners.
In addition to agricultural research technology, Pinduoduo has also launched the "Planting Spring with You" rural public welfare activity. Not long ago, Pinduoduo donated the "Agricultural Museum" to Huangtuzui Primary School in Bishidu Town, Ezhou City, Hubei Province through this public welfare activity, and collaborated with teachers and students from Huazhong Agricultural University to tailor a vivid agricultural practice course for local students. By explaining various agricultural tools, seeds, biology and other agricultural knowledge, it stimulated students' thinking and exploration of nature and agriculture.
Chen Lei, Chairman and Co CEO of Pinduoduo Group, stated that in addition to financial data, the company places greater emphasis on the long-term value brought by ecological investment. In the coming quarters, Pinduoduo will continue to invest in strategies such as "new quality supply" and "e-commerce westward" to bring more long-term returns to users, merchants, and industries.