Pinduoduo (PDD), a recently-listed Chinese e-tailer, announced (link in Chinese) on Wednesday evening that it will close 1,128 of its stores and remove up to 4.3 million of the items on its platform. It has also stopped the sales of up to 430,000 of suspected counterfeit products.
This move comes in the wake of a clampdown by Chinese regulators and the growing public uproar alleging that Pinduoduo has permitted the sale of counterfeit goods on its platform. It is the first major move taken by PDD following its public float on the Nasdaq.
The company states that these existing problems on its e-commerce platform would not be permitted to continue into the future and that Pinduoduo would evolve innovative solutions to resolve the problem.
Takeaways
– PDD share plummeted shortly after its IPO debut due to the public scrutiny and lawsuits over counterfeit items on its platform.
– PDD is making attempts to tackle the problem, in addition to highlighting the heightened responsibility that comes with being a public entity.
– The move indicates how the growing regulatory involvement of Beijing can impact rapidly growing internet enterprises.
Editor: Shiwen Yap, Ben Jiang
