Beyond freeing itself from a dependence on its rival, PDD’s approach presents a threat to Alibaba’s dominance of Chinese e-commerce shipping data. — AFP
For years, Pinduoduo Inc had little clue about the whereabouts of millions of parcels delivered every day to its shoppers’ doorsteps. Now it’s finally getting ready to take back control of that valuable data – from Alibaba.
China’s No 3 e-commerce platform has since its inception relied on much larger Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and its Cainiao unit to track and handle some US$70bil (RM293bil) of annual shipments, meaning its rival enjoyed an unparalleled overview of PDD’s nationwide activity and customers’ shopping habits. That’s finally changing thanks to PDD’s new in-house shipping information technology, said David Liu, Pinduoduo’s vice president of strategy.
