
Photo: VCG
Pinduoduo expects the Covid-19 outbreak to take a toll on first-quarter results, the Chinese e-commerce company said as it reported a 91% jump in fourth-quarter revenue.
“The disruption caused by the outbreak will have a negative impact on our results for the first quarter of 2020, but our expectations for the long run remain unchanged and even more positive,” Chief Executive Officer Colin Huang Zheng said Wednesday in a conference call.
Pinduoduo’s merchant and logistics operations have resumed and are gradually returning to normal after being disrupted by the outbreak since January, according to Huang. He said the company will continue subsidy programs to support business recovery.
The four-year-old site, specializing in group-buying deals for budget-savvy shoppers, reported 10.8 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) of revenue for the quarter ended Dec. 31. Its net loss for the quarter narrowed from 2.4 billion yuan a year ago to 1.8 billion yuan, according to its financial report.
Average monthly active users in the quarter were 481.5 million, an increase of 77% from the same period in 2018.
For the whole of 2019, Pinduoduo recorded total revenue of 30 billion yuan, a 130% increase from 2018. The annual net loss narrowed to almost 7 billion yuan from 10 billion yuan in 2018.
Pinduoduo’s Nasdaq-traded shares dropped nearly 7% Wednesday as Wall Street experienced jitters of the potential economic damage of the epidemic.