What happened
Shares of Pinduoduo (PDD -1.38%) popped as much as 10% today after larger peer Alibaba (BABA -3.08%) said that it enjoyed record sales for China's Singles' Day, which is the largest sales event in the world. Pinduoduo also operates a popular e-commerce platform in China, although it is smaller than Alibaba's.
So what
Alibaba said that Singles' Day gross merchandise volume (GMV) had already topped $70 billion as consumers opened their wallets for the shopping event. Singles' Day was initially popularized by Alibaba and normally starts on Nov. 11, although it commenced earlier this year. The event creates even more shopping activity than Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the U.S.
Image source: Getty Images.
While China has largely contained the coronavirus with strict lockdown measures, many other countries around the world have not, including the U.S. The lack of travel options has boosted e-commerce demand, according to Alibaba executive Liu Bo. The company also said that luxury brands were seeing particularly robust sales.
Now what
The data is encouraging for all Chinese e-commerce technology companies, including Pinduoduo. With 683.2 million active buyers at the end of the second quarter, Pinduoduo's platform is smaller than Alibaba's, which had 757 million across its various marketplaces at the end of the third quarter.
Pinduoduo is scheduled to report third-quarter results tomorrow evening. Analysts are expecting the company to generate $1.86 billion in revenue and post a loss per share of $0.17.
