China’s social e-commerce company Pinduoduo closed at USD 39.96 on Thursday, up 12.56%, bringing its market capitalization to USD 46.4 billion, a new high since it went public last year.
This also means the four-year-old company has exceeded JD.com as the fourth most valuable China-based internet company. JD.com closed at USD 30.72 on Thursday, 0.13% lower, dragging its market capitalization down to USD 44.7 billion.
Pinduoduo’s founder and chairman Huang Zhang revealed earlier this month that the platform’s Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV), which measures the overall volume of transactions in a given period, has actually surpassed that of JD.com.
In addition, Pinduoduo had 483.2 million active buyers in the twelve-month period ended June 30, 2019, beating JD.com which had 321.3 million during the same period.
However, it will still take time for Pinduoduo to prove its value to investors as it is still unprofitable.
The company booked RMB 1 billion (USD 146.1 million) in net losses in the second quarter of this year, partly due to heavy marketing spend, compared to net losses of RMB 6.5 billlion in the same quarter of 2018.
In comparison, JD.com reported RMB 18.8 million (USD 90.1 million) in net income in the second quarter of 2019, compared to a net loss of RMB 2.2 billion in the same quarter of 2018.
