Amazon opens pop-up store on China’s Pinduoduo until year-end

Amazon.com Inc on Monday said it will open a pop-up store on Chinese e-commerce platform Pinduoduo Inc that will run until the end of December and carry a selection of about 1,000 products from overseas.

The move, which was initially reported by Reuters on Sunday, points to how the U.S. firm’s China strategy is evolving after it decided earlier this year to stop operating a marketplace in the country for domestic-selling merchants.

Amazon had found it difficult to compete with entrenched, home-grown players such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s Tmall and its rival marketplace from JD.com Inc. In a sign of Tmall’s dominance, Amazon opened an online store on the platform in 2015.

Its decision to open a store on Pinduoduo, however, points to how the four-year-old startup has disrupted Alibaba and JD.com’s dominance of China’s e-commerce market through its popularity with China’s rural residents.

Reuters