Pinduoduo leveraged the investment by Tencent to ensure that the company is available and driven by WeChat, which provides an audience of 1 billion people," Zakkour told Beijing Review.

When Pinduoduo came into being in 2015, the traditional Internet and mobile Internet e-commerce market had been completely occupied and major players like Alibaba and JD.com had begun investing heavily offline in an effort to win more customers via brick-and-mortar stores.

However, Pinduoduo pioneered a new path: social e-commerce, a form of online retail which relies on social networks to assist in the buying and selling of products. The company focuses on group deals, which incentivizes customers with discounts if they invite friends to buy along with them.

The way Pinduoduo achieved its business success is quite unique. "The model is new,different and fresh. It's a great example of an idea and technology made in China for China. It adds to the diversity of technologies, tools and ecosystems for digital commerce in China and beyond," said Zakkour.

Storm of criticism

Despite this success, the allegations of counterfeit products persist. On July 28, Skyworth, a Chinese television manufacturer, released a statement on Sina Weibo—a Chinese premier micro-blogging portal—demanding Pinduoduo stop selling counterfeit versions of its products on its e-commerce platform. The company said it reserves the right to sue the social e-commerce discounter for selling fake products.

Following that, Zheng Yuanjie, a renowned Chinese fairy tale author, claimed on Sina Weibo that there were pirated copies of his books on sale on the platform. He demanded Pinduoduo stop selling them and wanted the