拼多多 (Pinduoduo)
Platform · this deep dive is built from the official pages of the platform itself and of the tools that support it.
Overview
拼多多 (Pinduoduo, "pin duo duo" — roughly "team up for more") is a Chinese trading platform built around group buying. The company describes the mechanic in its annual report like this: the platform created the "team purchase" model, in which buyers are encouraged to share product information on social networks and invite friends, family and acquaintances to form a "team" for a more attractive price. Hence the platform's place in a social commerce guide: sharing here is not an add-on to trading but its main drive mechanism.
The operator is given in the footer of the home page — 上海寻梦信息技术有限公司 (Shanghai Xunmeng Information Technology), Shanghai; the same place carries the support phone numbers and the telecommunications licences (www.pinduoduo.com). The parent structure is PDD Holdings Inc., registered in the Cayman Islands with head office in Dublin; it also owns Temu and reports to the SEC.
The platform describes itself briefly in the Chinese App Store: «拼多多 — more value, more fun», social new e-commerce. This is the company's own claim, not an independent assessment.
Who's here
An important warning about the numbers: the parent company no longer discloses Pinduoduo's audience. We went through the 2025 annual report and found not a single mention of active buyers in it — only seller and revenue indicators are disclosed (the 20-F form for 2025).
What the company does disclose: the number of active sellers on its platforms grew from 15.8 million in 2024 to 16.8 million in 2025, and the average revenue from transaction services per active seller from 12,399 yuan to 12,742 yuan (1822 US dollars). An important qualification: the indicator is counted across both of the holding's platforms — Pinduoduo and Temu together.
The company gives the revenue structure in the same place: total revenue for 2025 — 431,845.7 million yuan, of which online marketing and other 217,783.0 million yuan, transaction services 214,062.7 million yuan; virtually all revenue came from third-party sellers in China. In other words, the platform lives not off a commission in the pure sense but roughly equally off advertising and off the services around the deal.
The only open figure about the audience is a marketing one: the app description reports that 800 million users form "teams" for purchases here. Neither a period nor a counting method is stated; this is the app seller's claim, not a measurement.
The geography is one — mainland China. A separate English-language site, en.pinduoduo.com, exists, but on our check it returned only a heading with no content.
Getting started
The seller's storefront lives in a separate dashboard at mms.pinduoduo.com. The platform words its description in the page markup like this: «the Pinduoduo seller dashboard, a unified working panel for managing the shop, opening a shop for 0 yuan». Beyond that the page requires JavaScript to be enabled and an account sign-in — the contents of the dashboard cannot be seen from outside.
The phone numbers and working hours of seller support are published openly: the seller line 021-5339-5088, service from 8:00 to 20:30; the buyer line works from 8:00 to 23:00. The home page footer has a separate entry point «入驻多多国际» — joining the international line, Duo Duo International.
"Opening a shop for 0 yuan" does not mean there is no security deposit. The holding's balance sheet has a separate line for "seller deposits": 17,708.2 million yuan as of 31 December 2025 against 16,460.6 million a year earlier. The deposit size by category is not published on the open pages.
What you can publish
The main object is the product card. The requirements for it, the photo limits and the formatting rules live in the seller dashboard and on the rules portal rule.pinduoduo.com, which returned an empty page when we contacted it: the content is loaded by a script.
What is known about formats on top of the card, the platform describes in the app: live streams from production sites — "watch sweet potatoes being dug up, what a pineapple field looks like, shoes coming off the conveyor"; a separate short video feed 多多视频 with filters and effects; reviews for friends; mini-games tied to purchases.
The annual report confirms that live streams exist and at the same time outlines the risk: some sellers communicate with users through the live streaming feature, and since the exchange happens in real time, the company may be unable to check and moderate the information being transmitted.
How to grow
Growth here is paid and algorithmic at the same time. The company describes its advertising services like this: marketing services that match product cards into search results and browsing feeds; the revenue from them depends on the independent decisions of millions of sellers based on different marketing opportunities. In other words, this is an auction for impressions inside the platform, not an editorial ranking.
The second lever is the platform's subsidies. The app describes the 百亿补贴 programme ("bai yi butie" — "the ten billion subsidy") as selected popular branded goods with an across-the-board discount. Taking part in such programmes is a separate negotiation with the platform; there are no terms on the open pages.
The third lever is the agricultural line: in August 2021 the "10 Billion Agriculture Initiative" was launched, funded out of profit and, in the company's wording, not aimed at profit. For farms this is a separate channel of access to the platform.
Path to monetization
The platform does not pay authors: this is a marketplace, not a media outlet. Sellers earn, and the platform earns on advertising and transaction services.
There are no exact rates even in the reporting, but the company explains honestly why: the rates for transaction services are not necessarily fixed and may vary depending on the type of service, the product category, the seller's transaction indicators and which consumption scenario the purchase is assigned to. That is, there is no single "Pinduoduo commission" you could put a single number on — the rate is individual.
Tools and automation
The platform does have an open platform — the domain open.pinduoduo.com responds and is titled «拼多多 开放平台» ("the Pinduoduo open platform"). But its content is rendered by a script: without a browser the page returns only a message about the need to enable JavaScript, and the documentation section redirects to a sign-in form. We could verify neither the set of methods, nor the request limits, nor the access terms.
The same applies to the seller dashboard mms.pinduoduo.com: the platform calls it "a unified working panel for managing the shop", but the set of tools beyond that wording is not disclosed.
Limits and rules
The first restriction is national. Virtually all of the platform's revenue comes from sellers in China, and working on it presupposes compliance with Chinese e-commerce regulation. The company lists the requirements of the E-Commerce Law: platform operators are obliged to pass seller data to the local branches of the SAMR regulator, and the sellers themselves are obliged to register.
The second is regulatory pressure, and it is measurable. The company reports: in April 2026 SAMR fined seven platform operators approximately 3.6 billion yuan in total, including around 1.5 billion yuan on the Pinduoduo operator, for violations of the E-Commerce Law and food safety laws; with the same measure the regulator imposed a nine-month ban on new cake sellers (other than packaged ones) joining the platform. This is a rare example of supervision closing off entry to a category directly.
The third is product quality and gaming the numbers. The company frankly acknowledges the risk: sellers on its platforms may carry out fictitious transactions with themselves or in collusion with third parties in order to artificially inflate sales indicators and positions in search results. On the buyer's side the platform responds with the promise of «假一赔十» — tenfold compensation for a counterfeit and authenticity insurance for branded goods; for a seller that means hard financial liability for the goods.
Who it's for
It suits companies that are physically present in China, can pass seller registration under Chinese rules and are ready to compete on price: the group buying model and the subsidies are built around a low unit cost. A separate niche is manufacturers and farms, for whom the platform runs special programmes.
It does not suit authors and media projects: there are no payouts for content here, and the live streams and short video serve selling. It will not suit those who cannot work within the legal framework of the PRC or who count on a predictable published commission: the rate is individual.
Verified data
The checked data this deep dive rests on.
About the platform
the platform describes itself as follows: «拼多多作为新电商开创者，致力于将娱乐社交的元素融入电商运营中，通过“社交+电商”的模式，让更多的用户带着乐趣分享实惠，享受全新的共享式购物体验。»
Self-description: this is the platform's claim about itself, not an independent assessment
source, checked 2026-07-28
the operator is 上海寻梦信息技术有限公司 (Shanghai Xunmeng Information Technology), Shanghai; the footer of the home page carries the support phone numbers and the numbers of the telecommunications licences
The footer of the home page
source, checked 2026-07-28
the parent structure is PDD Holdings Inc., registered in the Cayman Islands, with head office in Dublin; it also owns Temu
The 20-F form for 2025
source, checked 2026-07-28
the «team purchase» model: buyers are encouraged to share product information on social networks and to invite friends, family and acquaintances to form a «team» for a more attractive price
The description of the business model in the annual report
source, checked 2026-07-28
Who's here
the number of active sellers grew from 15.8 million in 2024 to 16.8 million in 2025
The indicator is counted across both of the holding's platforms — Pinduoduo and Temu together
source, checked 2026-07-28
the average revenue from transaction services per active seller grew from 12,399 yuan in 2024 to 12,742 yuan (1822 US dollars) in 2025
An indicator across both of the holding's platforms
source, checked 2026-07-28
the app description in the Chinese App Store claims that 800 million users form «teams» for purchases on the platform
A marketing claim by the app's seller; neither a period nor a counting method is stated
source, checked 2026-07-28
Getting started
the seller support line 021-5339-5088 works from 8:00 to 20:30, the buyer line from 8:00 to 23:00
The footer of the home page
source, checked 2026-07-28
the seller dashboard is at mms.pinduoduo.com and is described by the platform as «a unified working panel for managing the shop» with «opening a shop for 0 yuan»; the page requires JavaScript and an account sign-in
The wording is taken from the page's meta description; the contents of the dashboard were not checked and the protection was not bypassed
source, checked 2026-07-28
What you can publish
on top of the product card there are live streams from production sites and a separate short video feed 多多视频 with filters and effects; there are reviews and mini-games tied to purchases
The app description from the platform's operator
source, checked 2026-07-28
Promotion
the platform describes the 百亿补贴 programme («the ten billion subsidy») as selected popular branded goods with an across-the-board discount
The terms of a seller's participation are not published on the open pages
source, checked 2026-07-28
in August 2021 the «10 Billion Agriculture Initiative» was launched, funded out of profit and, in the company's wording, not aimed at profit or commercial goals
A separate channel of access for farms
source, checked 2026-07-28
Advertising
the advertising services are described as matching product cards into search results and browsing feeds; the revenue from them depends on sellers' independent decisions
The annual report's wording; there are no rates or minimum budgets
source, checked 2026-07-28
How the money works here
the holding's revenue for 2025 — 431,845.7 million yuan: online marketing and other 217,783.0 million yuan, transaction services 214,062.7 million yuan; virtually all revenue came from third-party sellers in China
The 20-F form for 2025
source, checked 2026-07-28
Pricing
the rates for transaction services are not necessarily fixed and may vary depending on the type of service, the product category, the seller's transaction indicators and the consumption scenario
There is no single published platform commission; the company's own wording
source, checked 2026-07-28
the holding's balance sheet has a «seller deposits» line: 17,708.2 million yuan as of 31 December 2025 against 16,460.6 million a year earlier
Confirms that security deposits exist; the sizes by category are not published
source, checked 2026-07-28
Restrictions
the company acknowledges the risk: sellers may carry out fictitious transactions with themselves or in collusion with third parties in order to artificially inflate sales indicators and positions in search results
The risk factors section
source, checked 2026-07-28
the platform promises the buyer «假一赔十» — tenfold compensation for a counterfeit and authenticity insurance for branded goods
For a seller this means hard financial liability for the goods
source, checked 2026-07-28
Legal
in April 2026 SAMR fined seven platform operators approximately 3.6 billion yuan in total, including around 1.5 billion yuan on the Pinduoduo operator, for violations of the E-Commerce Law and food safety laws
The company reports that it accepted the penalty
source, checked 2026-07-28
with the same measure the regulator imposed a nine-month ban on new cake sellers (other than packaged ones) joining the platform
A direct closure of entry to a category by a supervisory decision
source, checked 2026-07-28
under the E-Commerce Law platform operators are obliged to pass seller data to the local branches of SAMR, and the sellers themselves are obliged to register
The section on regulation in the PRC
source, checked 2026-07-28
API access
an open platform exists at the domain open.pinduoduo.com, but its content is rendered by a script: without a browser the page returns only a demand to enable JavaScript, and the documentation section redirects to a sign-in form
OUR check on 28.07.2026; the set of methods, the limits and the access terms were not verified, and the protection was not bypassed
source, checked 2026-07-28
Languages
the interface language of the home page: zh; the language versions declared: en, zh
The language is taken from the markup attribute, the versions from hreflang
source, checked 2026-07-28
the English-language site en.pinduoduo.com responds, but on our check it returned only a heading with no content
source, checked 2026-07-28
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