Discounter Pinduoduo becomes China's 6th largest Internet company

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Chinese online group discounter Pinduoduo Inc has emerged as the country's sixth largest Internet companies at the close of U.S. markets on Tuesday, following five other domestic Internet tycoons of Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, Meituan Dianping and JD.com.

Although Pinduoduo is grappling with reports of fake and inferior goods, its gross merchandise volume (GMV) shot up from 141.2 billion yuan (about 20.6 billion U.S. dollars) in 2017 to 471.6 billion yuan (about 68.7 billion U.S. dollars) in 2018 with a surge of 234 percent thanks to its low-priced products and large user base.

Active buyers on Pinduoduo's online platforms stood at 418.5 billion last year, a sharp rise of 173.7 billion as compared to the previous year. Monthly active users of the company reached 273 million in the fourth quarter of 2018, nearly twice the size of users in the corresponding period of 2017.

The rising star in e-commerce market announced its follow-on offering plans Wednesday to raise money for further development path, according to which the company will issue 37,038,000 American depositary receipts (ADS) for the public offering, and another 14,815,000 shares of ADS by original shareholders, mainly early investors, for sale.

The company's founding team, management and employees will continue to deliver on their commitments of locking up options within three years.