PDD Q3 2023 Earnings Report $94.78 +4.28 (+4.73%) As of 04/14/2025 04:00 PM Eastern Earnings HistoryForecast PDD EPS ResultsActual EPS$11.61Consensus EPS $8.94Beat/MissBeat by +$2.67One Year Ago EPS$1.03PDD Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$68.84 billionExpected Revenue$55.18 billionBeat/MissBeat by +$13.66 billionYoY Revenue Growth+93.90%PDD Announcement DetailsQuarterQ3 2023Date11/28/2023TimeBefore Market OpensConference Call DateTuesday, November 28, 2023Conference Call Time7:30AM ETUpcoming EarningsPDD's Q1 2025 earnings is scheduled for Tuesday, May 20, 2025, with a conference call scheduled on Wednesday, May 21, 2025 at 7:30 AM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Conference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptPress Release (8-K)Earnings HistoryPDD ProfilePowered by PDD Q3 2023 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrNovember 28, 2023 ShareLink copied to clipboard.There are 7 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to PDD Holdings, Inc. 3rd Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question and answer session. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. Operator00:00:29I would now like to hand the conference over to your host today. Please go ahead. Speaker 100:00:37Thank you, operator. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. TDD Holdings earnings release was distributed earlier and is available on our website at investor. Pddholdings.com as well as through Global Newswire services. Before we begin, I would like to refer you to our Safe Harbor statement in earnings press release, which applies to this call as we will make certain forward looking statements. Speaker 100:01:03Also, this call includes discussions of certain non GAAP financial measures. Please refer to our earnings release, which contains a reconciliation of non GAAP measures to GAAP measures. Joining us today on the call are Mr. Chen Lei, our Chairman and Co CEO Mr. Zhaojiajun, our Executive Director and Co CEO As well as Mr. Speaker 100:01:26Liu Jun, our VP of Finance. Lei and Jiajun will make some general remarks on our performance for the past quarter and our strategic focus. Jun will then walk us through our financial results for the Q3 ended September 30, During the Q and A session, Lei and Jiajun will answer questions in Chinese and will help translate. Please note that the English translation is for reference only. In case of any discrepancy, management statements in the original language should prevail. Speaker 100:01:59Now it's my pleasure to introduce our Chairman and Co CEO, Chen Lei. Lei, please go ahead. Speaker 200:02:07Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining our earnings call for the Q3 of 2023. I will start by giving a brief overview of our 3rd quarter results. In Q3, we achieved a total revenue of RMB68.8 billion, representing a 94% year on year increase. This is a result of the improving consumer sentiment and our efforts to carrying out the high quality development strategy. Speaker 200:02:42As one of the largest e commerce platforms in China, we clearly felt a continuous recovery of the economy as well as the potential and resilience of the consumption market. With the introduction of a series of policies to support consumption, we are also seeing robust demand for consumption upgrades. Consumer behavior is telling us that consumption upgrade is not just about quality, but equally about price. It's a balance of quality and price that consumers care most about. Recognizing this trend, we are more confident about our value proposition of more savings and better services. Speaker 200:03:32In Q3, we continue to invest platform resources to make it easier for our users To enjoy an ever greater selection of quality products at affordable prices and with great service satisfaction. In Q3, we continued exploring new ways to offer our users special promotions Through a series of campaigns such as Duo Duo Harvest Festival, National Brands Festival, Due to reading month and national day sales, consumers get to enjoy attractive prices They are typically only available a few times a year during shopping festivals. We have always been confident in the vitality of China's consumer market. While we are laser focused on the shopping experience, our efforts go beyond the surface. Investing in technology innovation is the key to achieving high quality development. Speaker 200:04:40In Q3, We continue to invest decisively in areas such as agri tech, supply chain technology and our core R and D capabilities. Our investment in R and D reached RMB2.8 billion, Setting a new high, technology innovation is the core driving force behind our pursuit of high quality development and we will continue to step up investments in this area. At the same time, We are proactively taking on more social responsibilities. In August, The Jinsengi area was hit by severe weather. We immediately went into action and donated RMB30 1,000,000,000 RMB to the China Charity Federation to support affected region. Speaker 200:05:38At the same time, We launched dedicated relief campaigns and charity live streaming events to support affected companies. For example, to help book merchants in the region resume normal operations, we set up a dedicated channel on our platform and provided relief measures such as traffic support and 0 commission policy. In Q3, we went back to places in several provinces and hosted a series of reading for you Book donation events. We also donated food and helped build libraries for schools in Ganshu and Hebei provinces. We are hopeful that through these efforts, we can do what we can to broaden the horizons of the young people And how will it achieve a brighter future? Speaker 200:06:40I'm pleased to report that we were awarded La Crosse China Charity Award in September. This is in recognition of our efforts in rural revitalization, Although our business outside of China is still at early stage, It has made a meaningful progress since its launch a year ago. Drawing on the supply chain capabilities We have accumulated over the years, we are able to assist many manufacturers in expanding their presence and to directly engage consumers. Through TIMU, our cross border services Now, health manufacturers reach consumers in over 40 countries. While we have broadened our reach, the business is still in its early stage and we will face uncertainties. Speaker 200:07:41We are excited and intrigued by the opportunities and challenges that come with international developments. We look forward to working with more manufacturers and all our partners to create a next generation supply chain and shopping experience Thanks for the evolving trends of our types. Our mission is to serve all and benefit all and to empower consumers all around the world to live their best lives. This year is a year of recovery and also a year of heightened competition. As always, we will maintain our strategic direction and focus on the execution of our high quality development strategy. Speaker 200:08:32We will keep reminding ourselves of the day 1 mentality and explore new and better ways to serve our users. Through rapid product declarations and feedback cycles, we will get valuable insights that enable sustainable Through our efforts, we hope we can better The lives of our users and bring about positive trends to a world as a whole. Towards this goal, we will move ahead And now I will hand it over to Core CEO, Xiaozing. He will talk more about our high quality development Speaker 100:09:27Thank you, Lei. Hello, everyone. This is Xiaojiazheng. Thank you all for joining this earnings call. In the 1st 3 quarters, market vitality has continued to improve as the effect of consumption support policies gradually work its way into the economy. Speaker 100:10:08We are seeing stronger demand for consumption upgrades. Against this backdrop, in Q3, we launched a series of promotions such as the Summer Carnival, Dororo Harvest Festival, National Brands Festival and Dororo Reading Month, guided by our principal Servo and Benefit All, We stepped up our investment to offer more savings and better services. And during this year's Singles Day, we continue to simplify our promotions. For the first time, we offered direct price reduction on top of our RMB10 1,000,000,000 program. We now also cover many imported goods under the RMB10 1,000,000,000 program, bringing our users a wider selection of quality products at reasonable prices. Speaker 100:11:14As a result of our efforts, we saw good momentum during Singles' Day And over 620,000,000 consumers benefited from the 10,000,000,000 program. The single state promotion is one aspect of our high quality development strategy. With the goal of creating incremental value for the consumers and the society, We focused relentlessly on execution to deliver high quality assumptions, high quality supply and to improve platform governance and merchant ecosystem. Now let me walk you through the key initiatives my team and I have worked on during Q3. Firstly, we focused on high quality consumption. Speaker 100:12:37Since Q3, we continue to work on improving our core capabilities in offering more savings and better services. By adopting appropriate platform policies And incentives, we are constantly making affordable quality products more accessible to the public. Take the Duo Duo Harvest Festival as an example. In September, as the largest agricultural platform in China, Pinduoduo invested 1,000,000,000 platform resources and partnered with over 300,000 Agriculture merchants in more than 1,000 production regions across the country launched the Duo Duo Harvest Festival. At the same time, we expanded the 10,000,000,000 program to cover the full selection of participating agricultural product categories. Speaker 100:14:02We continue to invest to support quality and agricultural products. And in this process, we help farmers participate in the national markets and grow their income. Our farmer merchants are encouraged by the results they receive on our platform and are ever more committed to a career in agriculture. In addition to the Douzo Harvest Festival, which was dedicated to agricultural products, in Q3, we also collaborated with over 100 Chinese national brands to launch the National Goods Festival. In partnership with CCTV, more than 50 top Chinese brands such as Shanghai Sobe, 361, Cophenix and Arke were invited to live streaming sessions hosted on our 10,000,000,000 program to showcase their products and tell their brand stories to a nationwide The consumer demand was boosted by our various support measures such as featured live stream events, 10,000,000,000 program and large group buy in. Speaker 100:15:39We are pleased to see that some international brands achieved rapid growth in partnership with us. Some even experienced a 40 times growth in the past 2 years and the business is still growing quickly. In Q3, we continued to invest in our supply chain capabilities, which in turn enable more local manufacturing and agriculture In the Q3, our team returned to key agricultural production areas such as Jiangsu for aircraft and Northwest for foods. On our agricultural cloud initiative, we brought digital solutions to local producers to improve the resilience and the competitiveness of the local supply chain. In recent years, with the help of Pinduoduo, we are happy to see that a new generation of growers and farmers is emerging in these regions. Speaker 100:17:19Among them are Post 90s Finance Master degree holder, who sent no to investment banking and devoted himself to the Harry Craft And a Post-fifty eight Village Director who helped farmers sell 4,000,000 kilograms of sweet potatoes over 3 years. Innovation is a crucial element of the agricultural value chain. In Q3, we continue to promote digital inclusion and technology adoption in agriculture. To this end, we hosted the Pinduoduo Academy growing competition for the 2nd year, which serves as a platform to bring wider recognition for innovative, tech driven agriculture This year's event attracted 96 research teams. At the same time, our platform also provided strong traffic support and coupons for every type enabled products championed by participating teams. Speaker 100:18:50This is to promote standardization, brand building And digitization in agriculture. Our support covered a wide range of products, including oranges, citruses, lamb and kiwi fruits from top production regions. In the Q3, we continued the rapid business model iteration for our global initiatives. We made it easier than ever For manufacturers to reach consumers in over 40 countries and regions worldwide, we now serve more than 10,000 manufacturers from over 100 industrial belts across Guangdong, In our pursuit of high quality development, High quality ecosystem is the foundation that nurtures a mutually beneficial environment that supports the growth of the platform and Speaker 200:20:04its participants. Speaker 100:20:28In the past quarter, we improved the protection mechanism for minors That now covers account verification, search and browsing, order restrictions and content management. In addition, We also deepened our commitment to copyright protection through a series of dedicated campaigns. We are proactively looking for areas where we can take on more social responsibilities as we strive for a greener and healthier platform ecosystem. Last month, Pinduoduo celebrated its 8th anniversary. Looking back on the journey, We sincerely thank the consumers, farmers, merchants, investors and other stakeholders for all the support we received. Speaker 100:21:48Looking ahead, We'll move forward with a relentless focus on execution of a high quality development strategy. On the demand side, we'll continue to be consumer oriented to provide more savings and better services. On the supply side, we remain firmly rooted in the real economy, driving industrial modernization through innovation. On platform ecosystem, we are allocating more resources to upgrade platform governance, support quality SME merchants and foster a healthy and mutually beneficial environment. Now let me hand it over to Jun. Speaker 100:22:26She will provide you with an update on our financial performance. Speaker 300:22:32Thank you, Jiajun. Hello, everyone. Let me walk you through our financial performance for the Q3 ended September 30, 2023. In terms of income statement, in the Q3, our total revenues increased 94% year over year to RMB68.8 billion. This was mainly driven by the continued recovery in consumer sentiment and encouraging results from executing our haiku development strategy. Speaker 300:23:05Revenues from online marketing services and others were RMB39.7 billion this quarter, up 39% from the same quarter of 2022. Revenues from transaction services were RMB29.1 billion, up 3 15% from the same quarter last year. We will now take the course and expenses. Our total cost of revenues increased 2.62% from RMB7.4 billion in Q3 2022 to RMB26.8 billion this quarter. Mainly due to increase in fulfillment fees, payment processing fees, maintenance costs and call center expenses. Speaker 300:23:52On a GAAP basis, total operating expenses increased 44% to RMB25.4 billion from RMB17.7 billion in the Q2 of 2022. On a non GAAP basis, total operating expenses increased to RMB23.9 billion this quarter from RMB16.8 billion in Q3 2022. And the Q4, guided by our high quality development strategy, We invested decisively and responsible in key strategic initiatives. Our total non GAAP operating expenses As a percentage of our total revenue this quarter was 35%, compared to 44% in the same quarter last year. Looking into specific expense items. Speaker 300:24:51Our non GAAP sales and marketing expenses this quarter RMB21.3 billion, up 58% versus the same quarter last year. On a non GAAP basis, our sales and marketing expenses as a percentage of our revenue this quarter was 31% versus 38% for the same quarter last year. Throughout the past quarter, we continue to give back to consumers and rolled out a series of promotional campaigns. We have seen due to consumer feedback Our non GAAP general and administrative expenses were RMB403.3 million versus RMB226.3 million in the same quarter of 2022. Our research and development expenses were RMB2.2 billion this quarter on a non GAAP basis and RMB2.8 billion on a GAAP basis, hitting the new high. Speaker 300:26:00Technologies are at the heart of our value creation and will be a long term focus for us. We're committed to stepping up our investment in areas such as agriculture technology, supply chain and our core R and D capabilities. Operating profit for the quarter was RMB16.7 RMB16.7 billion on a GAAP basis, compared with RMB10.4 billion in the same quarter last year. Non GAAP operating profit was RMB18.1 billion versus RMB12.3 billion in the same quarter last year. Non GAAP operating profit margin was 26% this quarter, compared with 35% for the same quarter last year. Speaker 300:26:50Net income attributable to ordinary shareholders was RMB16.5 billion for the quarter, compared to RMB10.6 billion in the same quarter last year. Base earnings per ADS was RMB11.38 and diluted earnings per ADS was RMB10.50 versus base earnings per ADS of RMB8.38 and diluted earnings per ADS of RMB7.34 in the Q2 of 2022. Non GAAP net income attributable to ordinary shareholders was RMB17 1,000,000,000 versus RMB12.4 billion in the same quarter Yes. Non GAAP diluted earnings per ADS was RMB11.61 versus RMB 8.62 in the same quarter of 2022. We delivered solid financial results in the Q4. Speaker 300:27:51Looking ahead, we will continue to invest patiently to execute our high quality development strategy. That completes the income statement. Now let me move on to cash flow. Our net cash generated from operating activities was RMB32.5 billion, compared with RMB11.7 billion in the same quarter last year. As of September 30, 2023, We had RMB202.8 billion in cash, cash equivalents and short term investments. Speaker 300:28:30Thank you. This concludes my prepared remarks. Speaker 100:28:43Thank you, Jun. Next, we'll move on to the Q and A session. Today's Q and A session, Lei, Zhejiang and Jun will take questions from analysts on the We could take a maximum of 2 questions from each analyst. Lei and Jiayong will answer questions in Chinese and will help translate for convenience purposes. Operator, we are open for questions. Operator00:29:04Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Participants are requested to restrict Your first question will come from Natalie Wu of Haitong International. Please go ahead. Speaker 400:30:30Let me translate myself. Thanks for taking my question. I have 2 here. First one is regarding the company's strategy. How does management think about your strategic priorities? Speaker 400:30:45The business showed very strong momentum in the past quarter. So from a forward looking perspective, Just wondering what are the key strategies on the top of the mind of management? And then my second question is regarding the In the agriculture, we understand that agriculture has always been a core merchandise category for Pinduoduo. So just wondering, can management elaborate on why this category is key to your platform? And we recently learned that After so many years of efforts in this sector, this product category has continued to perform well and booked meaningful growth in the past quarter. Speaker 400:31:31Can management give us some color on what are some of the key initiatives you have implemented in agriculture so as to achieve that growth? Thank you. Speaker 100:31:49Hi, this is Xiaozhiajun. Let me take this question on strategy. And as we mentioned last quarter, starting this year, We are entering a stage of high quality development. And for us, this is not an empty cash freeze. We are implementing it in every aspect of our business. Speaker 100:32:39And first on the supply side, on the one hand, we are strengthening our capabilities in agriculture. And going forward, we will continue to invest in AgriTek and in supporting infrastructure. This is to improve The overall quality of the agricultural products that are sold on our platform. And at the same time, we launched the 10,000,000,000 ecosystem earlier this year to support the high quality merchants and other ecosystem partners doing business with us. This is to provide the right kind of incentives to facilitate the high quality development of the whole ecosystem. Speaker 100:33:48And at the same time, we are working very hard on improving our platform governance efforts, which is one of our top priorities since I took office. We are making steady progress in areas such as minor protection and also product safety. And from the consumer side, first, I want to say that our RMB10 billion program It's making some of the higher ticket items more accessible to our consumers. And during the most recent Singles Day, The number of users who benefited from the 10,000,000,000 program went over 620,000,000. And a positive user mind share is our most valuable asset. Speaker 100:35:03And it takes years of efforts to build up one order at a time, But could be easily destroyed very quickly. So we will not relax in this area. And from the consumer side, secondly, we have been improving our capabilities to provide better services to our users since the beginning of this year. And so far, we've received positive feedback. Over the long run, Through better service satisfaction, we hope to strengthen users' trust in our platform and deepen the better services mind shift. Speaker 100:36:04And by doing so, consumers will be more likely to try new product categories on the platform, so we can also better serve their diverse needs. We are prepared to work long and hard for the high We are very pleased to see that the strategy is starting to And also coming back to your question on our strategic priorities, the Board and management team adopted the high quality development strategy When I took off it earlier this year and this will continue to be our focus during my tenure. Thank you. Speaker 500:37:17Hi, this is Chen Lei. I will answer this question on your agricultural strategy. As you mentioned, agriculture is of strategic importance to us. We started out in agriculture, And that's how many users first came to know us. We are able to retain those users by serving them well through our agricultural offerings. Speaker 500:38:08Today, the online penetration of agricultural products is still relatively low. So there remains huge potential in this product category. Last quarter, we launched the Douyu Harvest Festival and brought agriculture products directly from more than 1,000 productive regions to consumers across the country. We allocated more platform resources to improve the quality of agricultural products and shopping experiences on our platform. We also brought many regional specialties to the national market for the first time by connecting farmers with suitable logistic resources. Speaker 500:39:30In doing so, we were able to better address consumers' demand for high quality, fresh and healthy agricultural products. That's what we have been doing to improve the quality and efficiency of the supply chain for agriculture products. At the same time, we understand that improving supply chain is just one aspect We also need to accelerate the adoption of agri tech innovation to improve productivity and product quality. This year, we hosted the 3rd Smart Agriculture Competition and the 2nd Pinduoduo Academy growing competition to promote agri tech innovation and adoption. We also supported talent specializing in agricultural areas and helped farmers increase activity and reduced losses. Speaker 500:41:24Meanwhile, we recognized the importance of fundamental research. In May, we donated RMB100 1,000,000 In August, We were pleased to welcome Yvonne to our Board as an Independent Director. Yvonne is an expert in Agriculture and Food Safety. With He on board, we will be more targeted in our investment in agricultural research. Our goal is to utilize cutting edge research to solve practical Going forward, agriculture will remain a cornerstone of our high quality development strategy. Speaker 500:43:01We will continue to leverage our Advantages in technology and platform resources to streamline the supply chain of agriculture products, promote agri tech innovation and adoption and bring more quality products directly from farm to table, thereby creating tangible benefits to our farmer merchants. Speaker 100:43:27Thank you, Natalie. Operator, we can move on to the next analyst on the line. Operator00:43:34The next question comes from Ronald Keung of Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Speaker 600:44:58Thank you, management, for taking my questions. So my first question is that since the beginning of this year, many of your competitors have been putting more emphasis on value for money merchandise and made it easier for manufacturers to set up storefronts on those platforms. And some of the your peers have observed some strong user and merchant momentum. So how do you evaluate the competitive landscape? And what are Some of the key initiatives to defend your competitive position in this environment. Speaker 600:45:28And my second question is that we've seen your global business gather good Strong momentum since launch a little over a year ago. So can you share with us the latest development, Your strategy for this business going forward and what's your vision for the business in the near to medium term? Thank you. Speaker 100:45:57This is Xiaojiazheng. Thank you for your question. And let me share my thoughts on competition. As Lei just mentioned, This year is a year of recovery, but it's also a year of heightened competition. As the microchip policies are gradually rolled out, We are not surprised that our industry peers have been increasing investments to boost consumption. Speaker 100:47:14Our industry needs to Face directly the constantly evolving consumer needs and consumers nowadays have different platforms to choose from. So competition is inevitable. There is no permanent solution to dealing with competition. And instead, we are always thinking about how to improve our core competencies and work with ecosystem partners to create greater value for our consumers. In the Q3, we continue to be innovative in providing more savings and better services And to offer more quality and affordable products to our consumers and at the same time with great shopping experience. Speaker 100:48:33While we are continuing to deepen the more savings mind share, which is our strong suit traditionally, We hope we can also deepen consumers' trust in our platform by providing better services. This will hopefully invite more users to explore new product categories on the platform, so we can better serve our users' demand for consumption upgrade. And on the supply side, we continue to be rooted in real economy and to promote digital inclusion in agriculture And manufacturing sectors across the nation. By helping the producers sell their products directly to consumers, Both in China and now globally, we enable more producers to enjoy the benefits of digital economy And at the same time, broaden the merchandise selection on our platform. Our approach to competition has always been clear, which is we don't focus on what our competitors do, but on what our consumers need. Speaker 100:50:25We have been seeing a clear trend of consumption upgrade among our users. And against this backdrop, we formulated the high quality development strategy to better adapt The idea is very simple, but simple does not mean easy. Sometimes competition can easily evolve into unhealthy market practices and those who do well will always attract attacks. For example, we noted a short seller report on our company was issued in early September. The allegations in the report are totally baseless And the short seller has a spotty track record. Speaker 100:51:44And on its face, the report was published with the intent To create panic and to drive down stock prices and enabling the firm to the short seller to profit from short decisions. As we investigated further, We found out that there were actually more follow-up actions taken by the instigator behind the report. Their motive and the unusual Actions are quite apparent. We are encouraged to see that most investors understood underlying motive and saw through the ground lease acquisitions. And looking forward, we will continue to focus on our consumers and our high quality development strategy. Speaker 100:53:12With a clear and focused mind, we will relentlessly focus on execution. And in the end, we believe consumers will vote with their wallets. This is our view on competition. Thank you. Speaker 300:53:28This is Jane. Thanks, Ruon. Let me take your question on global business. Well, for our global business, the idea is to leverage the which directly connects the factories with consumers and is based on a flexible supply chain. Currently, Consumers from all 40 countries with diverse cultural backgrounds are able to purchase directly from high quality factories through our services. Speaker 300:54:07However, this is still in a very early stage. Many of our initiatives are in the beta Our team is actively learning about the different markets and the consumer needs around Voat. It will be it's really a process that will be challenging, but at the same time interesting. We look forward to working with Lamad and Partners on this journey to make the lives of consumers around about more enjoyable. Thanks. Speaker 100:54:47And operator, I think we have time for one more analyst. Operator00:54:53The next question comes from Ellie Jang of Macquarie. Please go ahead. Speaker 500:55:48Let me translate myself. Two questions. First is on the revenue. It seems the company achieved very robust revenue growth of 94% year over year. What did you think contributed to this growth? Speaker 500:56:00What do you think you have done right in the past quarter? And how do you think about the growth sustainability into the 4th and next year? And then the next is about the margin. We've noticed that your margin decreased on a year over year and quarter over quarter basis. What are the some of the key investment areas that you're putting your resources into? Speaker 500:56:19Is this related to the competition? How is your global business impacting your profitability? And how should we think about the trends for the margin in the next few quarters? Thank you. Speaker 100:56:37Hi, this is Xiaojiazheng. I'll start by addressing the question about growth. As Lei mentioned earlier, our financial performance this quarter is the combined result of improving consumer sentiment and the execution of our high quality development strategy. And in the past quarter, driven by consumption recovery, the Chinese economy grew at a rate that went over market Expectations, which demonstrates the resilience of the Chinese economy. What we are seeing on our platform Also confirms the potential of the consumer market. Speaker 100:57:50We have confidence in the Chinese consumption market. There remains much to be done to better serve the consumer demands. Although the industry players do not have any major promotions planned during Q3, We still practice everyday low price philosophy and worked hard to provide consumers with a wider selection of quality products at affordable prices. And this is to deepen our all savings value proposition. And while we serve the basic needs of our consumers, Our cooperation with Branded Merchants also generated good results. Speaker 100:59:11During the National Goods Festival, We invested in coupons and also invested in platform resources to help more national brands to quickly gain popularity. And we put in place the appropriate policies and Offers platform resources to incentivize our merchants to work with us together on providing more savings and better services. We are very pleased to see growing trust in our platform and higher user activities, which in turn provide more Sales opportunities for the merchants and merchants in turn are naturally more willing to increase the investment on our platform. We have been saying that revenue is a natural The value we create for our ecosystem partners, we will maintain our strategic direction and focus on the execution of the high quality Instead of paying too much attention to short term revenue trends, we will direct our attention to work on improving our core capabilities for serving the consumers and our merchants. Thank you. Speaker 301:01:16This is Jing. Thanks, Ali, for your question. I will answer your question about profitability. 1st and foremost, we are still in a development phase. Possibility in the short run is not our priority. Speaker 301:01:31Instead, our team has laser focused on executing our high quality development strategy, which we hope will increase the value of the platform in the long run. In the past quarter, Guided by the high quality development strategy, we step up our investment in key areas such as promotion activities and service upgrades To deepen our more savings and better serve this market share, we also further built on our supply chain capabilities and ecosystem improvements. We are seeing encouraging results from our execution and we will continue to invest firmly when we see good ROI potential. In terms of future trends, we operate in a fast paced Market environment, where investment opportunities change on a daily basis. Because of this, our business execution will not match Financial reporting schedule. Speaker 301:02:34And going forward, our profitability may continue to fluctuate on a quarterly basis. Thank you. Speaker 101:02:47And thankRead moreRemove AdsPowered by Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallPDD Q3 202300:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2xRemove Ads Earnings DocumentsPress Release(8-K) PDD Earnings HeadlinesPDD Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:PDD)April 11, 2025 | americanbankingnews.comPDD: Growing Pains For Long-Term GainsApril 10, 2025 | seekingalpha.comTrump’s treachery Trump’s Final Reset Inside the shocking plot to re-engineer America’s financial system…and why you need to move your money now.April 15, 2025 | Porter & Company (Ad)PDD Stock Tumbles After Trump Tariff Hike On Low-Cost Chinese Imports: Retail Buzz IntensifiesApril 9, 2025 | msn.comWhat is the Temu tariff? How Trump tariffs will hurt Temu shoppersApril 8, 2025 | msn.com3PDD, AMZN : Tariffs To Impact End Demand: Goldman Sachs Analyst Expects Drag...April 6, 2025 | benzinga.comSee More PDD Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like PDD? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on PDD and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About PDDPDD (NASDAQ:PDD), a multinational commerce group, owns and operates a portfolio of businesses. It operates Pinduoduo, an e-commerce platform that offers products in various categories, including agricultural produce, apparel, shoes, bags, mother and childcare products, food and beverage, electronic appliances, furniture and household goods, cosmetics and other personal care, sports and fitness items and auto accessories; and Temu, an online marketplace. It focuses on bringing businesses and people into the digital economy. The company was formerly known as Pinduoduo Inc. and changed its name to PDD Holdings Inc. in February 2023. 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There are 7 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to PDD Holdings, Inc. 3rd Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question and answer session. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. Operator00:00:29I would now like to hand the conference over to your host today. Please go ahead. Speaker 100:00:37Thank you, operator. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. TDD Holdings earnings release was distributed earlier and is available on our website at investor. Pddholdings.com as well as through Global Newswire services. Before we begin, I would like to refer you to our Safe Harbor statement in earnings press release, which applies to this call as we will make certain forward looking statements. Speaker 100:01:03Also, this call includes discussions of certain non GAAP financial measures. Please refer to our earnings release, which contains a reconciliation of non GAAP measures to GAAP measures. Joining us today on the call are Mr. Chen Lei, our Chairman and Co CEO Mr. Zhaojiajun, our Executive Director and Co CEO As well as Mr. Speaker 100:01:26Liu Jun, our VP of Finance. Lei and Jiajun will make some general remarks on our performance for the past quarter and our strategic focus. Jun will then walk us through our financial results for the Q3 ended September 30, During the Q and A session, Lei and Jiajun will answer questions in Chinese and will help translate. Please note that the English translation is for reference only. In case of any discrepancy, management statements in the original language should prevail. Speaker 100:01:59Now it's my pleasure to introduce our Chairman and Co CEO, Chen Lei. Lei, please go ahead. Speaker 200:02:07Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining our earnings call for the Q3 of 2023. I will start by giving a brief overview of our 3rd quarter results. In Q3, we achieved a total revenue of RMB68.8 billion, representing a 94% year on year increase. This is a result of the improving consumer sentiment and our efforts to carrying out the high quality development strategy. Speaker 200:02:42As one of the largest e commerce platforms in China, we clearly felt a continuous recovery of the economy as well as the potential and resilience of the consumption market. With the introduction of a series of policies to support consumption, we are also seeing robust demand for consumption upgrades. Consumer behavior is telling us that consumption upgrade is not just about quality, but equally about price. It's a balance of quality and price that consumers care most about. Recognizing this trend, we are more confident about our value proposition of more savings and better services. Speaker 200:03:32In Q3, we continue to invest platform resources to make it easier for our users To enjoy an ever greater selection of quality products at affordable prices and with great service satisfaction. In Q3, we continued exploring new ways to offer our users special promotions Through a series of campaigns such as Duo Duo Harvest Festival, National Brands Festival, Due to reading month and national day sales, consumers get to enjoy attractive prices They are typically only available a few times a year during shopping festivals. We have always been confident in the vitality of China's consumer market. While we are laser focused on the shopping experience, our efforts go beyond the surface. Investing in technology innovation is the key to achieving high quality development. Speaker 200:04:40In Q3, We continue to invest decisively in areas such as agri tech, supply chain technology and our core R and D capabilities. Our investment in R and D reached RMB2.8 billion, Setting a new high, technology innovation is the core driving force behind our pursuit of high quality development and we will continue to step up investments in this area. At the same time, We are proactively taking on more social responsibilities. In August, The Jinsengi area was hit by severe weather. We immediately went into action and donated RMB30 1,000,000,000 RMB to the China Charity Federation to support affected region. Speaker 200:05:38At the same time, We launched dedicated relief campaigns and charity live streaming events to support affected companies. For example, to help book merchants in the region resume normal operations, we set up a dedicated channel on our platform and provided relief measures such as traffic support and 0 commission policy. In Q3, we went back to places in several provinces and hosted a series of reading for you Book donation events. We also donated food and helped build libraries for schools in Ganshu and Hebei provinces. We are hopeful that through these efforts, we can do what we can to broaden the horizons of the young people And how will it achieve a brighter future? Speaker 200:06:40I'm pleased to report that we were awarded La Crosse China Charity Award in September. This is in recognition of our efforts in rural revitalization, Although our business outside of China is still at early stage, It has made a meaningful progress since its launch a year ago. Drawing on the supply chain capabilities We have accumulated over the years, we are able to assist many manufacturers in expanding their presence and to directly engage consumers. Through TIMU, our cross border services Now, health manufacturers reach consumers in over 40 countries. While we have broadened our reach, the business is still in its early stage and we will face uncertainties. Speaker 200:07:41We are excited and intrigued by the opportunities and challenges that come with international developments. We look forward to working with more manufacturers and all our partners to create a next generation supply chain and shopping experience Thanks for the evolving trends of our types. Our mission is to serve all and benefit all and to empower consumers all around the world to live their best lives. This year is a year of recovery and also a year of heightened competition. As always, we will maintain our strategic direction and focus on the execution of our high quality development strategy. Speaker 200:08:32We will keep reminding ourselves of the day 1 mentality and explore new and better ways to serve our users. Through rapid product declarations and feedback cycles, we will get valuable insights that enable sustainable Through our efforts, we hope we can better The lives of our users and bring about positive trends to a world as a whole. Towards this goal, we will move ahead And now I will hand it over to Core CEO, Xiaozing. He will talk more about our high quality development Speaker 100:09:27Thank you, Lei. Hello, everyone. This is Xiaojiazheng. Thank you all for joining this earnings call. In the 1st 3 quarters, market vitality has continued to improve as the effect of consumption support policies gradually work its way into the economy. Speaker 100:10:08We are seeing stronger demand for consumption upgrades. Against this backdrop, in Q3, we launched a series of promotions such as the Summer Carnival, Dororo Harvest Festival, National Brands Festival and Dororo Reading Month, guided by our principal Servo and Benefit All, We stepped up our investment to offer more savings and better services. And during this year's Singles Day, we continue to simplify our promotions. For the first time, we offered direct price reduction on top of our RMB10 1,000,000,000 program. We now also cover many imported goods under the RMB10 1,000,000,000 program, bringing our users a wider selection of quality products at reasonable prices. Speaker 100:11:14As a result of our efforts, we saw good momentum during Singles' Day And over 620,000,000 consumers benefited from the 10,000,000,000 program. The single state promotion is one aspect of our high quality development strategy. With the goal of creating incremental value for the consumers and the society, We focused relentlessly on execution to deliver high quality assumptions, high quality supply and to improve platform governance and merchant ecosystem. Now let me walk you through the key initiatives my team and I have worked on during Q3. Firstly, we focused on high quality consumption. Speaker 100:12:37Since Q3, we continue to work on improving our core capabilities in offering more savings and better services. By adopting appropriate platform policies And incentives, we are constantly making affordable quality products more accessible to the public. Take the Duo Duo Harvest Festival as an example. In September, as the largest agricultural platform in China, Pinduoduo invested 1,000,000,000 platform resources and partnered with over 300,000 Agriculture merchants in more than 1,000 production regions across the country launched the Duo Duo Harvest Festival. At the same time, we expanded the 10,000,000,000 program to cover the full selection of participating agricultural product categories. Speaker 100:14:02We continue to invest to support quality and agricultural products. And in this process, we help farmers participate in the national markets and grow their income. Our farmer merchants are encouraged by the results they receive on our platform and are ever more committed to a career in agriculture. In addition to the Douzo Harvest Festival, which was dedicated to agricultural products, in Q3, we also collaborated with over 100 Chinese national brands to launch the National Goods Festival. In partnership with CCTV, more than 50 top Chinese brands such as Shanghai Sobe, 361, Cophenix and Arke were invited to live streaming sessions hosted on our 10,000,000,000 program to showcase their products and tell their brand stories to a nationwide The consumer demand was boosted by our various support measures such as featured live stream events, 10,000,000,000 program and large group buy in. Speaker 100:15:39We are pleased to see that some international brands achieved rapid growth in partnership with us. Some even experienced a 40 times growth in the past 2 years and the business is still growing quickly. In Q3, we continued to invest in our supply chain capabilities, which in turn enable more local manufacturing and agriculture In the Q3, our team returned to key agricultural production areas such as Jiangsu for aircraft and Northwest for foods. On our agricultural cloud initiative, we brought digital solutions to local producers to improve the resilience and the competitiveness of the local supply chain. In recent years, with the help of Pinduoduo, we are happy to see that a new generation of growers and farmers is emerging in these regions. Speaker 100:17:19Among them are Post 90s Finance Master degree holder, who sent no to investment banking and devoted himself to the Harry Craft And a Post-fifty eight Village Director who helped farmers sell 4,000,000 kilograms of sweet potatoes over 3 years. Innovation is a crucial element of the agricultural value chain. In Q3, we continue to promote digital inclusion and technology adoption in agriculture. To this end, we hosted the Pinduoduo Academy growing competition for the 2nd year, which serves as a platform to bring wider recognition for innovative, tech driven agriculture This year's event attracted 96 research teams. At the same time, our platform also provided strong traffic support and coupons for every type enabled products championed by participating teams. Speaker 100:18:50This is to promote standardization, brand building And digitization in agriculture. Our support covered a wide range of products, including oranges, citruses, lamb and kiwi fruits from top production regions. In the Q3, we continued the rapid business model iteration for our global initiatives. We made it easier than ever For manufacturers to reach consumers in over 40 countries and regions worldwide, we now serve more than 10,000 manufacturers from over 100 industrial belts across Guangdong, In our pursuit of high quality development, High quality ecosystem is the foundation that nurtures a mutually beneficial environment that supports the growth of the platform and Speaker 200:20:04its participants. Speaker 100:20:28In the past quarter, we improved the protection mechanism for minors That now covers account verification, search and browsing, order restrictions and content management. In addition, We also deepened our commitment to copyright protection through a series of dedicated campaigns. We are proactively looking for areas where we can take on more social responsibilities as we strive for a greener and healthier platform ecosystem. Last month, Pinduoduo celebrated its 8th anniversary. Looking back on the journey, We sincerely thank the consumers, farmers, merchants, investors and other stakeholders for all the support we received. Speaker 100:21:48Looking ahead, We'll move forward with a relentless focus on execution of a high quality development strategy. On the demand side, we'll continue to be consumer oriented to provide more savings and better services. On the supply side, we remain firmly rooted in the real economy, driving industrial modernization through innovation. On platform ecosystem, we are allocating more resources to upgrade platform governance, support quality SME merchants and foster a healthy and mutually beneficial environment. Now let me hand it over to Jun. Speaker 100:22:26She will provide you with an update on our financial performance. Speaker 300:22:32Thank you, Jiajun. Hello, everyone. Let me walk you through our financial performance for the Q3 ended September 30, 2023. In terms of income statement, in the Q3, our total revenues increased 94% year over year to RMB68.8 billion. This was mainly driven by the continued recovery in consumer sentiment and encouraging results from executing our haiku development strategy. Speaker 300:23:05Revenues from online marketing services and others were RMB39.7 billion this quarter, up 39% from the same quarter of 2022. Revenues from transaction services were RMB29.1 billion, up 3 15% from the same quarter last year. We will now take the course and expenses. Our total cost of revenues increased 2.62% from RMB7.4 billion in Q3 2022 to RMB26.8 billion this quarter. Mainly due to increase in fulfillment fees, payment processing fees, maintenance costs and call center expenses. Speaker 300:23:52On a GAAP basis, total operating expenses increased 44% to RMB25.4 billion from RMB17.7 billion in the Q2 of 2022. On a non GAAP basis, total operating expenses increased to RMB23.9 billion this quarter from RMB16.8 billion in Q3 2022. And the Q4, guided by our high quality development strategy, We invested decisively and responsible in key strategic initiatives. Our total non GAAP operating expenses As a percentage of our total revenue this quarter was 35%, compared to 44% in the same quarter last year. Looking into specific expense items. Speaker 300:24:51Our non GAAP sales and marketing expenses this quarter RMB21.3 billion, up 58% versus the same quarter last year. On a non GAAP basis, our sales and marketing expenses as a percentage of our revenue this quarter was 31% versus 38% for the same quarter last year. Throughout the past quarter, we continue to give back to consumers and rolled out a series of promotional campaigns. We have seen due to consumer feedback Our non GAAP general and administrative expenses were RMB403.3 million versus RMB226.3 million in the same quarter of 2022. Our research and development expenses were RMB2.2 billion this quarter on a non GAAP basis and RMB2.8 billion on a GAAP basis, hitting the new high. Speaker 300:26:00Technologies are at the heart of our value creation and will be a long term focus for us. We're committed to stepping up our investment in areas such as agriculture technology, supply chain and our core R and D capabilities. Operating profit for the quarter was RMB16.7 RMB16.7 billion on a GAAP basis, compared with RMB10.4 billion in the same quarter last year. Non GAAP operating profit was RMB18.1 billion versus RMB12.3 billion in the same quarter last year. Non GAAP operating profit margin was 26% this quarter, compared with 35% for the same quarter last year. Speaker 300:26:50Net income attributable to ordinary shareholders was RMB16.5 billion for the quarter, compared to RMB10.6 billion in the same quarter last year. Base earnings per ADS was RMB11.38 and diluted earnings per ADS was RMB10.50 versus base earnings per ADS of RMB8.38 and diluted earnings per ADS of RMB7.34 in the Q2 of 2022. Non GAAP net income attributable to ordinary shareholders was RMB17 1,000,000,000 versus RMB12.4 billion in the same quarter Yes. Non GAAP diluted earnings per ADS was RMB11.61 versus RMB 8.62 in the same quarter of 2022. We delivered solid financial results in the Q4. Speaker 300:27:51Looking ahead, we will continue to invest patiently to execute our high quality development strategy. That completes the income statement. Now let me move on to cash flow. Our net cash generated from operating activities was RMB32.5 billion, compared with RMB11.7 billion in the same quarter last year. As of September 30, 2023, We had RMB202.8 billion in cash, cash equivalents and short term investments. Speaker 300:28:30Thank you. This concludes my prepared remarks. Speaker 100:28:43Thank you, Jun. Next, we'll move on to the Q and A session. Today's Q and A session, Lei, Zhejiang and Jun will take questions from analysts on the We could take a maximum of 2 questions from each analyst. Lei and Jiayong will answer questions in Chinese and will help translate for convenience purposes. Operator, we are open for questions. Operator00:29:04Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Participants are requested to restrict Your first question will come from Natalie Wu of Haitong International. Please go ahead. Speaker 400:30:30Let me translate myself. Thanks for taking my question. I have 2 here. First one is regarding the company's strategy. How does management think about your strategic priorities? Speaker 400:30:45The business showed very strong momentum in the past quarter. So from a forward looking perspective, Just wondering what are the key strategies on the top of the mind of management? And then my second question is regarding the In the agriculture, we understand that agriculture has always been a core merchandise category for Pinduoduo. So just wondering, can management elaborate on why this category is key to your platform? And we recently learned that After so many years of efforts in this sector, this product category has continued to perform well and booked meaningful growth in the past quarter. Speaker 400:31:31Can management give us some color on what are some of the key initiatives you have implemented in agriculture so as to achieve that growth? Thank you. Speaker 100:31:49Hi, this is Xiaozhiajun. Let me take this question on strategy. And as we mentioned last quarter, starting this year, We are entering a stage of high quality development. And for us, this is not an empty cash freeze. We are implementing it in every aspect of our business. Speaker 100:32:39And first on the supply side, on the one hand, we are strengthening our capabilities in agriculture. And going forward, we will continue to invest in AgriTek and in supporting infrastructure. This is to improve The overall quality of the agricultural products that are sold on our platform. And at the same time, we launched the 10,000,000,000 ecosystem earlier this year to support the high quality merchants and other ecosystem partners doing business with us. This is to provide the right kind of incentives to facilitate the high quality development of the whole ecosystem. Speaker 100:33:48And at the same time, we are working very hard on improving our platform governance efforts, which is one of our top priorities since I took office. We are making steady progress in areas such as minor protection and also product safety. And from the consumer side, first, I want to say that our RMB10 billion program It's making some of the higher ticket items more accessible to our consumers. And during the most recent Singles Day, The number of users who benefited from the 10,000,000,000 program went over 620,000,000. And a positive user mind share is our most valuable asset. Speaker 100:35:03And it takes years of efforts to build up one order at a time, But could be easily destroyed very quickly. So we will not relax in this area. And from the consumer side, secondly, we have been improving our capabilities to provide better services to our users since the beginning of this year. And so far, we've received positive feedback. Over the long run, Through better service satisfaction, we hope to strengthen users' trust in our platform and deepen the better services mind shift. Speaker 100:36:04And by doing so, consumers will be more likely to try new product categories on the platform, so we can also better serve their diverse needs. We are prepared to work long and hard for the high We are very pleased to see that the strategy is starting to And also coming back to your question on our strategic priorities, the Board and management team adopted the high quality development strategy When I took off it earlier this year and this will continue to be our focus during my tenure. Thank you. Speaker 500:37:17Hi, this is Chen Lei. I will answer this question on your agricultural strategy. As you mentioned, agriculture is of strategic importance to us. We started out in agriculture, And that's how many users first came to know us. We are able to retain those users by serving them well through our agricultural offerings. Speaker 500:38:08Today, the online penetration of agricultural products is still relatively low. So there remains huge potential in this product category. Last quarter, we launched the Douyu Harvest Festival and brought agriculture products directly from more than 1,000 productive regions to consumers across the country. We allocated more platform resources to improve the quality of agricultural products and shopping experiences on our platform. We also brought many regional specialties to the national market for the first time by connecting farmers with suitable logistic resources. Speaker 500:39:30In doing so, we were able to better address consumers' demand for high quality, fresh and healthy agricultural products. That's what we have been doing to improve the quality and efficiency of the supply chain for agriculture products. At the same time, we understand that improving supply chain is just one aspect We also need to accelerate the adoption of agri tech innovation to improve productivity and product quality. This year, we hosted the 3rd Smart Agriculture Competition and the 2nd Pinduoduo Academy growing competition to promote agri tech innovation and adoption. We also supported talent specializing in agricultural areas and helped farmers increase activity and reduced losses. Speaker 500:41:24Meanwhile, we recognized the importance of fundamental research. In May, we donated RMB100 1,000,000 In August, We were pleased to welcome Yvonne to our Board as an Independent Director. Yvonne is an expert in Agriculture and Food Safety. With He on board, we will be more targeted in our investment in agricultural research. Our goal is to utilize cutting edge research to solve practical Going forward, agriculture will remain a cornerstone of our high quality development strategy. Speaker 500:43:01We will continue to leverage our Advantages in technology and platform resources to streamline the supply chain of agriculture products, promote agri tech innovation and adoption and bring more quality products directly from farm to table, thereby creating tangible benefits to our farmer merchants. Speaker 100:43:27Thank you, Natalie. Operator, we can move on to the next analyst on the line. Operator00:43:34The next question comes from Ronald Keung of Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Speaker 600:44:58Thank you, management, for taking my questions. So my first question is that since the beginning of this year, many of your competitors have been putting more emphasis on value for money merchandise and made it easier for manufacturers to set up storefronts on those platforms. And some of the your peers have observed some strong user and merchant momentum. So how do you evaluate the competitive landscape? And what are Some of the key initiatives to defend your competitive position in this environment. Speaker 600:45:28And my second question is that we've seen your global business gather good Strong momentum since launch a little over a year ago. So can you share with us the latest development, Your strategy for this business going forward and what's your vision for the business in the near to medium term? Thank you. Speaker 100:45:57This is Xiaojiazheng. Thank you for your question. And let me share my thoughts on competition. As Lei just mentioned, This year is a year of recovery, but it's also a year of heightened competition. As the microchip policies are gradually rolled out, We are not surprised that our industry peers have been increasing investments to boost consumption. Speaker 100:47:14Our industry needs to Face directly the constantly evolving consumer needs and consumers nowadays have different platforms to choose from. So competition is inevitable. There is no permanent solution to dealing with competition. And instead, we are always thinking about how to improve our core competencies and work with ecosystem partners to create greater value for our consumers. In the Q3, we continue to be innovative in providing more savings and better services And to offer more quality and affordable products to our consumers and at the same time with great shopping experience. Speaker 100:48:33While we are continuing to deepen the more savings mind share, which is our strong suit traditionally, We hope we can also deepen consumers' trust in our platform by providing better services. This will hopefully invite more users to explore new product categories on the platform, so we can better serve our users' demand for consumption upgrade. And on the supply side, we continue to be rooted in real economy and to promote digital inclusion in agriculture And manufacturing sectors across the nation. By helping the producers sell their products directly to consumers, Both in China and now globally, we enable more producers to enjoy the benefits of digital economy And at the same time, broaden the merchandise selection on our platform. Our approach to competition has always been clear, which is we don't focus on what our competitors do, but on what our consumers need. Speaker 100:50:25We have been seeing a clear trend of consumption upgrade among our users. And against this backdrop, we formulated the high quality development strategy to better adapt The idea is very simple, but simple does not mean easy. Sometimes competition can easily evolve into unhealthy market practices and those who do well will always attract attacks. For example, we noted a short seller report on our company was issued in early September. The allegations in the report are totally baseless And the short seller has a spotty track record. Speaker 100:51:44And on its face, the report was published with the intent To create panic and to drive down stock prices and enabling the firm to the short seller to profit from short decisions. As we investigated further, We found out that there were actually more follow-up actions taken by the instigator behind the report. Their motive and the unusual Actions are quite apparent. We are encouraged to see that most investors understood underlying motive and saw through the ground lease acquisitions. And looking forward, we will continue to focus on our consumers and our high quality development strategy. Speaker 100:53:12With a clear and focused mind, we will relentlessly focus on execution. And in the end, we believe consumers will vote with their wallets. This is our view on competition. Thank you. Speaker 300:53:28This is Jane. Thanks, Ruon. Let me take your question on global business. Well, for our global business, the idea is to leverage the which directly connects the factories with consumers and is based on a flexible supply chain. Currently, Consumers from all 40 countries with diverse cultural backgrounds are able to purchase directly from high quality factories through our services. Speaker 300:54:07However, this is still in a very early stage. Many of our initiatives are in the beta Our team is actively learning about the different markets and the consumer needs around Voat. It will be it's really a process that will be challenging, but at the same time interesting. We look forward to working with Lamad and Partners on this journey to make the lives of consumers around about more enjoyable. Thanks. Speaker 100:54:47And operator, I think we have time for one more analyst. Operator00:54:53The next question comes from Ellie Jang of Macquarie. Please go ahead. Speaker 500:55:48Let me translate myself. Two questions. First is on the revenue. It seems the company achieved very robust revenue growth of 94% year over year. What did you think contributed to this growth? Speaker 500:56:00What do you think you have done right in the past quarter? And how do you think about the growth sustainability into the 4th and next year? And then the next is about the margin. We've noticed that your margin decreased on a year over year and quarter over quarter basis. What are the some of the key investment areas that you're putting your resources into? Speaker 500:56:19Is this related to the competition? How is your global business impacting your profitability? And how should we think about the trends for the margin in the next few quarters? Thank you. Speaker 100:56:37Hi, this is Xiaojiazheng. I'll start by addressing the question about growth. As Lei mentioned earlier, our financial performance this quarter is the combined result of improving consumer sentiment and the execution of our high quality development strategy. And in the past quarter, driven by consumption recovery, the Chinese economy grew at a rate that went over market Expectations, which demonstrates the resilience of the Chinese economy. What we are seeing on our platform Also confirms the potential of the consumer market. Speaker 100:57:50We have confidence in the Chinese consumption market. There remains much to be done to better serve the consumer demands. Although the industry players do not have any major promotions planned during Q3, We still practice everyday low price philosophy and worked hard to provide consumers with a wider selection of quality products at affordable prices. And this is to deepen our all savings value proposition. And while we serve the basic needs of our consumers, Our cooperation with Branded Merchants also generated good results. Speaker 100:59:11During the National Goods Festival, We invested in coupons and also invested in platform resources to help more national brands to quickly gain popularity. And we put in place the appropriate policies and Offers platform resources to incentivize our merchants to work with us together on providing more savings and better services. We are very pleased to see growing trust in our platform and higher user activities, which in turn provide more Sales opportunities for the merchants and merchants in turn are naturally more willing to increase the investment on our platform. We have been saying that revenue is a natural The value we create for our ecosystem partners, we will maintain our strategic direction and focus on the execution of the high quality Instead of paying too much attention to short term revenue trends, we will direct our attention to work on improving our core capabilities for serving the consumers and our merchants. Thank you. Speaker 301:01:16This is Jing. Thanks, Ali, for your question. I will answer your question about profitability. 1st and foremost, we are still in a development phase. Possibility in the short run is not our priority. Speaker 301:01:31Instead, our team has laser focused on executing our high quality development strategy, which we hope will increase the value of the platform in the long run. In the past quarter, Guided by the high quality development strategy, we step up our investment in key areas such as promotion activities and service upgrades To deepen our more savings and better serve this market share, we also further built on our supply chain capabilities and ecosystem improvements. We are seeing encouraging results from our execution and we will continue to invest firmly when we see good ROI potential. In terms of future trends, we operate in a fast paced Market environment, where investment opportunities change on a daily basis. Because of this, our business execution will not match Financial reporting schedule. Speaker 301:02:34And going forward, our profitability may continue to fluctuate on a quarterly basis. Thank you. Speaker 101:02:47And thankRead moreRemove AdsPowered by