In less than two months since its stock began trading on Nasdaq, the share price of Chinese e-commerce upstart Pinduoduo has been steadily rising – gaining a record high last Thursday, with a 60% increase over its IPO price. Shares of its bigger rival, Alibaba, meanwhile lost ground in the same period, shedding nearly 15% on the NYSE.
Pinduoduo is just three years old. It has about 300 million users, compared with Alibaba’s 617 million. Another Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com, founded 10 years ago and for the longest time viewed as the biggest threat to Alibaba, has roughly the same market share as Pinduoduo.
The battle to rule China’s e-commerce market was deemed over a long time ago. Alibaba’s dominance had been unshakable, while runner-up JD.com was also consolidating its power as a logistics giant. No-one seemed to stand a chance of breaking the duopoly; even Amazon failed to make much of an impact. Until now.
Pinduoduo has ricocheted to the No.
