Pinduoduo’s Rapid Growth Slows Sharply

Chinese discount shopping app Pinduoduo has grown explosively to challenge the country’s biggest ecommerce giants, Alibaba and JD.com, paving the way for the company to go public in the U.S. in July. But new data suggests Pinduoduo’s growth in transactions has slowed in the past four months, throwing into question whether the group-buying app’s viral spread will continue.

The previously unpublished data, from Beijing-based analytics startup SuperSymmetry Technologies, suggests the Nasdaq-listed company might not meet analysts’ expectations this year for gross merchandise volume. That’s a measure of the total value of orders in its online marketplace. (See above chart.) GMV is distinct from revenue and is a closely watched metric that shows how fast an ecommerce site is growing relative to its competitors. That uncertainty could fuel volatility in the stock, which jumped as high as $30.48 a share last week, after weeks of trading around its IPO price of $19. On Tuesday, Pinduoduo stock was trading around $24, giving the company a market capitalization of about $27 billion.