The company looks for investment opportunities outside China as well. The firm doesn’t disclose exactly how much it plans to invest in the field, though Lim said “compared to some of the other players in the industry, our involvement in agriculture is definitely more comprehensive.” These examples are just the tip of the iceberg of Pinduoduo’s agricultural long game. The winner’s design would then be rolled out at one of the AI-powered Duo Duo Farms, a project jointly launched by Pinduoduo and the provincial government of Yunnan to let farmers sell directly on the e-commerce platform. ![]() They were graded on criteria such as the fruit’s sweetness, energy and fertilizer use, and their AI strategy. ![]() It kickstarted a smart farming competition this year, calling teams from around the world to grow strawberries using artificial intelligence and connected devices. The e-commerce firm is also hoping to gather agronomic expertise for its farm suppliers. When it comes to production, Pinduoduo is able to track purchase behavior from its hundreds of millions of buyers and tell farmers what they should plant and how they should price their products, an approach in line with the firm’s larger direct-to-consumer strategy to cut traditional middlemen costs. The number was $21 billion in 2019.įarmers in Yunnan Province learn how to open and operate a store on Pinduoduo at the Duo Duo University. In August, Pinduoduo pledged to sell $145 billion worth of farm produce annually by 2025. That translated to some 12 million farmers who supplied their fruits and vegetables to the merchants. ![]() In 2019, nearly 600,000 merchants sold farm produce through Pinduoduo. “At least on the downstream distribution side, on e-commerce marketplaces for agricultural products, I would say we are relatively ahead compared to the rest of the world,” Xin Yi Lim, executive director of sustainability and agriculture impact at Pinduoduo, told TechCrunch in an interview. At the implementation stage, the team might then tap its operational colleagues for contacts at various local governments and traditional farms that want to try the technologies. Its strategy and investment team takes the lead to identify solutions targeting all stages of agriculture that the company can help scale up. Instead of a standalone department, the firm’s agricultural endeavor is a company and even society-wide effort. “Investing in smart agriculture is an extension of what we do and guided by our goal of promoting digital inclusion.” Over time it has grown into a comprehensive e-commerce platform rivaling Alibaba, but agriculture “has always been close to the heart of Pinduoduo since its inception,” said Pinduoduo’s senior vice president Andre Zhu. ![]() Pinduoduo saw an opportunity in the gap and started life by selling fruits online. A McKinsey report from late 2017 showed that agriculture was among the least digitized industries in China. Life in China has become highly digital in many facets, from retail and entertainment to education and healthcare. It’s answering the Chinese government’s call to modernize the country’s agriculture and bolster the rural economy. Online shoppers in China were excited to see its rise as an alternative to longtime market dominators Alibaba and JD.com.īut the startup founded by former Google engineer Colin Huang has ambitions well beyond e-commerce. Back in 2018, Pinduoduo sent shock waves through the investor community when it raised $1.6 billion from a Nasdaq listing as a three-year-old company.
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