Pinduoduo Founder Moves On As Business Beats Out Alibaba

Even as Pinduoduo, founded in 2015, overtakes Alibaba to become China’s largest eCommerce company, a shakeup at the top continues.

Pinduoduo Founder Colin Huang has resigned as chairman, the company announced Wednesday (March 17). Huang had stepped down as the company’s CEO in July. The shakeup comes as China’s regulators increase their scrutiny of the giant eCommerce and financial technology (FinTech) companies.

Pinduoduo added that its board had appointed CEO Chen Lei to take up the position of chairman. The announcement said Huang “will devote his time to exploring new long-term opportunities.”

The CEO of FinTech giant Ant Group, Simon Hu, stepped down earlier this month (March 12). Ant is in the midst of a restructuring that includes setting up a financial holding company. The company is facing new, and stricter, regulations that require FinTechs to meet the same rules and capital requirements as traditional financial institutions (FIs).

In a press release on quarterly results released Wednesday, Pinduoduo said it is now “China’s largest agriculture and interactive commerce platform.”

“We saw six years ago that mobile is the only way to go. Therefore, we are the only major consumer internet company in the world that is mobile only,” said Chen, the new chairman and CEO. “The mobile internet fundamentally transforms the way humans interact with each other.”

In 2020, Pinduoduo had 788.4 million annual active buyers, users who bought at least one item last year, up 35 percent from a year earlier. Also for last year, the retailing platform saw its gross merchandise value (GMV), or total sales volume, hit $255.6 billion, up two-thirds from 2019.

In the fourth quarter, ending Dec. 31, Pinduoduo’s revenue rose 146 percent year, compared to the same quarter in 2019, to a little over $4 billion.

“Agriculture is a strategic priority for us,” said David Liu, vice president of strategy, adding that the company will continue to invest in that sector. “Reducing inefficiencies in the supply chain will lower structural costs and make groceries more affordable for everyone.”