Is Pinduoduo the Best Chinese Stock to Own?

 | Dec 07, 2022 01:58AM ET

  • The Company posted 65% YoY growth and 350% growth in operating profits in Q3 2022 to become the third-largest e-commerce player in China
  • Pinduoduo’s platform is a cross between eBay, Amazon.com, Facebook, and Pinterest
  • The social commerce model has proven exceptionally strong during COVID lockdowns as isolated consumers tend to browse and pin items more often.
  • China-based social e-commerce platform Pinduoduo (NASDAQ:PDD) stock has been a rocket ship since its blowout Q3 2022 earnings report. Unlike China’s largest e-commerce and internet company JD.com (NASDAQ:JD), Pinduoduo incorporates an interesting twist to e-commerce by adding a truly social element to purchases.

    It’s kind of a cross between Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY), Etsy (NASDAQ:ETSY), Pinterest (NYSE:PINS), and Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META).

    Pinduoduo has found amazing success executing a social e-commerce model, which sounds good in theory, but the execution has been astounding. Top line growth has been sizzling at 65% in Q3 2022 during the COVID lockdowns and accelerating sequentially, up from just 7% in Q1 2022. They have contracted directly with manufacturers and farmers to connect with their users and control their supply chains with tactical precision.

    h2 The Social E-Commerce Model /h2

    The concept is unique as it enables consumers on its app to form teams when purchasing products for a large discount for the group directly from manufacturers. By cutting out the middlemen, the discounts are passed down to the consumers. Users can “pin” products they find interesting or desirable and the discounts grow as more users pin the product for purchase.

    This incentivizes users to use their agriculture segment accommodating farmers to sell items in bulk directly to consumers using the team buying model.

    h2 Staggering Pace of Growth /h2

    On Nov. 28, 2022, Pinduoduo reported its fiscal Q3 2022 earnings. The Company reported earnings-per-share (EPS) of $1.20 per share beating consensus analyst estimates by ($0.47). Revenues climbed 65% year-over-year (YoY) to $4.99 billion, beating analyst estimates by $621 million.

    Operating profits rose 388% to $2.14 billion. Pinduoduo CEO Chen Lei commented, “We are helping to upgrade real economy enterprises and manufacturers by connecting them directly with the end consumers. Our pioneering team purchase model can quickly and directly connect devices by gathering consumer demand.

    We have leveraged digital e-commerce technology to shorten the product development cycle and help manufacturers to create products that closely manages market needs. This can help manufacturers to build their brand.”