Inside PDD, China's e-commerce titan behind Temu and Pinduoduo

Inside PDD, China's e-commerce titan behind Temu and Pinduoduo

As PDD Holdings' Temu moved into more than 40 countries in 2023, reportedly spending more than $2 billion on marketing, employees say the work culture took a toll on their personal lives and health. (Photo by Yuki Kohara)

It was 2006, at a conference in San Francisco, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was crouched down in a packed auditorium attentively taking notes. Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, was introducing a hushed crowd to the company that would come to dominate China’s e-commerce market. It would have been hard to imagine back then that Alibaba would eventually take on the American e-commerce giant in China and win.

Bring stories like this into your inbox every day.

Sign up for our newsletter - The Daily Brief
Subscribe to Newsletter