After the launch of "Douyin Pay" by Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, another Chinese tech giant, Pinduoduo, may be close to launching its payment service.
An affiliate of Pinduoduo filed a trademark for "Pinduoduo Pay" on January 14, and the status is currently "pending," according to data provider Tianyancha.
Pinduoduo has been preparing for the payment service for a long time. As early as November 2019, Pinduoduo applied for the trademark "Duoduo Pay", although the current status of the application is "invalid." In January 2020, Pinduoduo acquired Fufeitong, a third-party payment company, before Douyin and Kuaishou received their payment licenses.
In December 2020, Pinduoduo had begun internal testing of its payment service "Duoduo Wallet," which appeared in several users' "My" in the application.
The "Duoduo Wallet" currently has only two functions: Top-up and Withdrawal, and offers discounts for payments made through the wallet. Pinduoduo said that the "Duoduo Wallet" is gradually put into use. At present, Duoduo Wallet is only available to some users, and more services will be supported in the future.
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The payment service of "Duoduo Wallet" is provided by Fufeitong, which was established in 2003 and was one of the first payment institutions to receive a license, along with Alipay and TenPay. Fufeitong's business involves Internet payment, cell phone payment, fixed-line payment, and bank card acquiring business.
The competition in the payment business has intensified as various Internet giants have entered the field of payment business.
In September 2020, Beijing-based TikTok owner ByteDance obtained a payment license by acquiring Hezhong Yibao, and in November, Kuaishou obtained a payment license by acquiring PAYECO. On January 19, Douyin officially launched "Douyin Payments", ahead of Pinduoduo, where users can use Douyin Paymentsas well as Alipay and WeChat Pay in Douyin App.
Pinduoduo is a third-party mobile e-commerce platform with a merchant-in-residence model that uses a collocation model to bring in users and orders, focusing on price advantages.
By the close of trading on January 19, Pinduoduo had a market capitalization of $206.992 billion, significantly ahead of JD.com, which has a market capitalization of $141.751 billion. Pinduoduo is the second highest market capitalization e-commerce platform in China after Alibaba, while JD.com was founded 16 years before Pinduoduo.
