Pinduoduo

We kick off Season 7 with a bang: Pinduoduo, the incredible five year-old Chinese mashup of "Costco and Disneyland" (as self-described in their IPO prospectus) which recently became the fastest company ever to pass $100B market capitalization. What makes PDD so special, and how were they able to enter a market that everyone considered "already won" and disrupt massive entrenched competitors Alibaba and JD.com? This story is chock-full of lessons that apply not only to China tech, but to high-growth company building and investing everywhere.

Sponsors:

• Sierra: https://bit.ly/acquiredsierra
• Sentry: https://bit.ly/acquiredsentry
• Anthropic: https://bit.ly/acquiredclaude25
• Vanta: https://vanta.com/acquired

More Acquired!

• Get email updates with hints on next episode and follow-ups from recent episodes
• Join the Slack
• Subscribe to ACQ2
• Merch Store!

© Copyright 2015-2025 ACQ, LLC

Links:

• Photo of 26 year-old Colin at lunch with Warren Buffett: https://thelowdown.momentum.asia/cv-of-pinduoduos-founder/
• PDD users on mini-programs vs other Chinese e-commerce players: https://miro.medium.com/max/1080/0*39fpSP_JqhDaPhQ2.png

Carve Outs

• How to Make a Spaceship https://www.amazon.com/How-Make-Spaceship-Renegades-Spaceflight/dp/1594206724
• Creativity, Inc. https://www.amazon.com/Creativity-Inc-Overcoming-Unseen-Inspiration/dp/0812993012/

Sources:

• http://investor.pinduoduo.com/static-files/468b2c9f-9112-410d-84b3-2b22e07c7ee0
• http://investor.pinduoduo.com/static-files/5539839d-0a1c-4d40-9bb7-bdb490e2370c
• https://analyse.asia/2018/08/09/episode-260-pinduoduo-their-upcoming-ipo-in-china-with-matthew-brennan/
• https://analyse.asia/2020/06/28/pinduoduo-on-social-ecommerce-agriculture-with-xinyi-lim/
• https://blog.ycombinator.com/pinduoduo-and-the-rise-of-social-e-commerce
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinduoduo#cite_note-8
• https://hans.vc/pinduoduo/
• https://medium.com/@clarkboyd/pinduoduo-everything-you-need-to-know-about-pdd-chinas-third-biggest-ecommerce-site-38ac42086e47
• https://overcast.fm/+HWy7CWz34
• https://overcast.fm/+I8dmHF4NU
• https://overcast.fm/+PLdRNCiCg
• https://overcast.fm/+TmYdC1VPQ
• https://overcast.fm/+TmYfSO3sc
• https://targetchina.com.au/article/how-pinduoduo-successfully-gained-market-share-through-social-commerce/
• https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/26/the-incredible-rise-of-pinduoduo/
• https://technode.com/2020/05/12/pinduoduo-growth-story-needs-a-new-chapter/
• https://trendslates.substack.com/p/amazons-335bn-in-gmv-amazon-testing
• https://twitter.com/bgurley/status/1255172025053663232
• https://www.businessinsider.com/fabulous-life-colin-huang-pinduoduo-2020-7
• https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/22/what-is-pinduoduo-chinese-ecommerce-rival-to-alibaba.html
• https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/07/02/why-pinduoduo-stock-popped-today.aspx
• https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/07/07/4-tough-tasks-for-pinduoduos-new-ceo.aspx
• https://www.forbes.com/real-time-billionaires/#721870433d78
• https://www.scmp.com/tech/e-commerce/article/3081078/pinduoduo-doubles-down-rural-china-five-year-us71-billion-e
• https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1737806/000104746918005204/a2236308z424b4.htm
• https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/1737806/000110465920051022/pdd-20191231x20f.htm
• https://www.techbuzzchina.com/episodes/ep-17-pinduoduo-from-zero-to-23b-in-three-years
• https://www.theinformation.com/articles/chinas-pinduoduo-is-nipping-at-alibabas-heels
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BidaQ22vWvM
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqxtfOMMVFg
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjLhCK8sUcw
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zbskb0KMBUU&t=4s