Zhitong Finance learned that on November 21, Pinduoduo released its financial report for the third quarter of 2024 ending September 30. Benefiting from a steady recovery in macro consumption, Pinduoduo's performance remained steady, with revenue reaching 99.4 billion yuan for the current quarter.

In the third quarter, the high-quality development strategy that Pinduoduo has been adhering to entered a comprehensive acceleration stage. The platform's investment in ecological construction was further increased. It successively launched a number of major initiatives such as “10 billion reduction,” “e-commerce going west,” and “new quality merchant support programs.” More than 10 million merchants reduced costs and increased efficiency, and also provided consumers with richer high-quality supply.

“In the past quarter, we launched a series of relief and support measures to promote merchants to reduce costs and increase revenue through real money returns and exemptions, and push the industrial belt into a new stage of high-quality development.” Zhao Jiazhen, executive director and co-CEO of Pinduoduo Group, said that thanks to strong investment from the supply side, the platform provides users with richer agricultural products, domestic products and global goods, further meeting the increasingly diverse consumer needs of users.

“As stated last quarter, we have increased our ecological investments this quarter and received positive feedback from both the supply and demand sides.” Chen Lei, chairman and co-CEO of Pinduoduo Group, said that in the next few quarters, we will continue to firmly implement high-quality development strategies, continuously improve the platform and industry ecology, and bring long-term returns to users, merchants and the industry.

Multiple measures of “support+relief” continue to benefit both supply and demand

In the third quarter, Pinduoduo further increased its investment in the platform ecosystem, and successively launched a series of initiatives such as “10 billion reduction,” “e-commerce going west,” and “support plan for new quality merchants,” to promote the deepening of ecological construction from the platform level to the industrial level.

In mid-August, Pinduoduo intensively implemented the “10 billion dollar reduction” package. A number of service fee refund benefits were successively introduced, and service fees were lowered first and later, store security deposits and withdrawal thresholds were lowered to reduce the operating costs of merchants in all aspects. Many agricultural and domestic goods merchants can save hundreds of thousands of yuan every year by simply promoting the return of service fees, creating vitality and space for the transformation and upgrading of merchants and industrial belts.

In order to bring more benefits to users in remote regions such as the western region, Pinduoduo is also vigorously promoting the “e-commerce westward” program, eliminating logistics transit fees for orders from remote regions, which are all covered by the platform, drastically reducing express delivery costs for orders sent by merchants to remote areas. Express delivery costs for categories such as agricultural goods, fresh goods, and daily necessities have been reduced by up to 70%, and express delivery orders in the western region have increased significantly, greatly stimulating the enthusiasm of merchants to explore the western market and promoting economic vitality between the eastern and western regions.

▲During the Harvest Festival, Pinduoduo invested 1 billion in subsidy funds and 2 billion traffic resources to support new quality merchants. Yang Wan|photo

Following the “10 billion dollar reduction”, Pinduoduo fully launched the “New Quality Merchant Support Program” and invested in a 10 billion resource package to select new quality merchants and new quality brands with product and technological innovation capabilities, and provide full product, marketing, operation and supply chain support. At the “Harvest Festival” event in early September alone, Pinduoduo invested 1 billion in subsidy funds and 2 billion traffic resources to support merchants of new agricultural products such as yam, Pingping, and pomelo in Wenxian County to push seasonal agricultural products out of the village and into the city, and help agricultural production areas increase production and income.

At present, the “New Quality Merchant Support Program” has penetrated into dozens of industrial belts, including beauty brushes in Cangzhou, small appliances in Cixi, flat vacation eyelashes, and wearing nails in the East China Sea. Relying on the platform's digital technology, it helps local merchants move from primary processing to deep processing, from industrial white brands to new quality brands, leading the industrial belt to accelerate into high-quality development.

“Benefiting from firm investment on the supply side, merchants have more motivation and space to innovate and upgrade products and technologies to further satisfy the increasingly diverse consumption concepts of users.” Zhao Jiazhen said that judging from consumer trends, users in Tier 1 and 2 cities have bought more new mobile phones, big-name beauty, and healthy and light food to meet personalized consumption needs; third- and fourth-tier users have bought more high-end household appliances, mother and child products, fruit and seafood, and achieved consumption upgrades.

Continue to increase long-term investment and comprehensively accelerate high-quality development

As a platform that started in agriculture, Pinduoduo continued to increase its efforts to pay back to agriculture in the third quarter, and made many investments in the field of agricultural agricultural research.

On September 19, on the eve of the Harvest Festival, Pinduoduo teamed up with teachers and students from 17 science and technology institutes across the country to show the live broadcast audience nearly 20 new agricultural research achievements, including Northeast Sea Buckthorn Health Tea, Guangxi Beihai Fresh Prawn Cake, Sichuan Ebian Fresh Bamboo Shoot, Yunnan Erhai Fragrant Rice, etc., which attracted 18.5 million netizens to watch and assemble orders, achieving a seamless connection between agricultural research and production practices and industrial development.

Subsequently, the final of the 4th “Duoduo Agricultural Research and Technology Competition” opened as scheduled. In the first stage of the finals, 6 agricultural research teams used cutting-edge agricultural technology to complete the innovative transformation of a “plant factory” in a container to explore new ideas for scientific cultivation such as energy saving and consumption reduction. Next, the finalists will also enter the intelligent planting stage for competitive testing, continue to explore cutting-edge techniques and scenario applications in agricultural planting, and inject new vitality into the development of agricultural agricultural research.

▲At the agricultural research competition hosted by Pinduoduo, 6 teams explored the practice and application of agricultural research technology. Li Ao|Photo

On September 26, the final of the “2024 Global Agricultural Maker Contest” initiated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and supported by Pinduoduo also successfully opened. Dozens of young agricultural research entrepreneurs from many countries around the world focused on showcasing innovative solutions to global agricultural problems using digital technology. 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 to promote the contestants' innovative solutions to agricultural practitioners around the world.

In addition to agricultural research and technology, Pinduoduo also launched the “Plant Spring with You” pastoral charity event. Not long ago, Pinduoduo donated the “Farming Museum” to Huangtuzui Primary School in Bishidu Town, Ezhou City, Hubei Province, and collaborated with Huazhong agricultural teachers and students to tailor a vivid agricultural practice course for local students. By explaining various agricultural tools, seeds, biology and other agricultural knowledge, Pinduoduo stimulated students' thinking and exploration of nature and farming.

“Over the past quarter, we have continued to step up agricultural research and ecological construction, and continue to feed back society and agriculture and industry.” Chen Lei said that in the next few quarters, we will make a firm long-term investment and continue to focus on ecological construction such as “new quality supply” and “e-commerce going west” to accelerate the development of the platform and industry to high quality.