On September 5th, Pinduoduo issued an internal notice to merchants on the platform, adjusting the business policies: the basic deposit for merchants' stores will be reduced from 1,000 yuan to 500 yuan.

In addition, Pinduoduo also upgraded the after-sales service system for merchants, especially making special adjustments to after-sales dispute appeals, with merchants welcoming multiple benefits.

As the second-quarter financial report was released, Pinduoduo announced an investment of ten billion to support high-quality merchants and significantly reduce the transaction fees for merchants, with an expected reduction of ten billion in the next year.

Chen Lei also stated that in order to maintain the long-term healthy development of the platform, Pinduoduo will firmly invest in the path of high-quality development, and the management has reached a consensus, ready to sacrifice short-term profits for long-term investment.

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At present, Pinduoduo's "billion yuan reduction plan" including multiple measures such as service fee exemptions has been successively implemented.

This series of measures has caused Pinduoduo's stock price to fluctuate recently, but industry analysis believes that Pinduoduo is willing to "spend a lot of money" to introduce a series of new measures, aiming to pave the way for long-term development.

Before reducing the merchant deposit, Pinduoduo had successively introduced a series of service fee reduction policies.

On August 13th, Pinduoduo introduced a refundable technology service fee right for merchants who signed up to participate in the internal resource position activities.

For any product orders generated by participating in activities such as the ten billion subsidy, platform promotions, 9.9 special sales, trendy good prices, and group purchases, after the user initiates a refund, the platform will refund the basic technology service fee of 1% for the pay-later orders, and 0.6% for other orders.

On September 5th, Pinduoduo announced that it would reduce the store deposit, further reducing the operating costs for merchants.

Subsequently, Pinduoduo also upgraded the "technology service fee refund right".

In addition to enjoying the service fee refund right, the rate of technology service fee for pay-later orders generated by merchants participating in resource position activities was reduced from 1% to 0.6%, which means that the technology service fee for merchants' pay-later activity orders was directly discounted by 40%.

A week ago, Pinduoduo's "promotion service fee refund right" for merchants has officially taken effect.

For orders where consumers make a full refund before shipment, the platform will automatically return the corresponding amount of the promotion red packet for the promotion software service fee to the merchant without the need for the merchant to initiate an appeal.

In order to further optimize the merchants' user experience, Pinduoduo also upgraded the after-sales service system, opened a green channel, established a special after-sales service team, and fully supported merchants to appeal against abnormal orders, malicious complaint orders, and consumer negative experience orders.

After the merchant's appeal is successful, the platform will compensate for the relevant orders.

At the same time, Pinduoduo also made special adjustments to the appeal service for after-sales disputes, no longer limiting the number of appeals that can be made.

As long as the merchant has doubts about the after-sales handling, they can initiate an appeal to the platform.

Currently, this new right is undergoing preliminary testing, and some merchants have already enjoyed this right, which is expected to cover all merchants in the near future.

This series of measures and the attitude of the management at the financial report meeting have also caused fluctuations in Pinduoduo's stock price.

For the market, continuous investment in the platform ecosystem and a reduction of billions of service fees mean that future revenue and profits will be affected, but Pinduoduo still firmly chooses to "spend a lot of money" to invest, what is the intention behind it?

With the support of high-quality development, Bozhou herbal tea has moved from the primary agricultural product industry to the deep processing of "solid beverages", completing industrial upgrading.

Ouyang Rihui, deputy dean of the China Internet Economy Research Institute at the Central University of Finance and Economics, said to China News Agency that recently, many e-commerce platforms have chosen to lower the threshold for merchants to enter, such as Pinduoduo's adjustment of store deposits, which is a timely response of platform companies to the market environment.

From the market environment, consumers are becoming more and more rational in consumption, and their requirements for product quality are getting higher and higher.

The key to platform competition is price.

If the operating costs of merchants increase, the quality of products will inevitably decline, and customer traffic and repurchase rate will be affected.

Therefore, from the perspective of platform competition, several platforms are adjusting according to changes in the external environment, attracting merchants to enter by improving the business environment and reducing the operating costs of merchants.

From the perspective of national policy, the platform's "burden reduction" for merchants is also a practice of responding to the national policy to promote consumption and fulfilling social responsibility.

"In recent years, under the changes in the national high-quality development strategy and the economic development positioning of 'doing big, strong and excellent in the real economy', the governance of platforms has been continuously carried out, and more and more e-commerce platforms have started to reform from the perspective of increasing ecological stickiness."

Ouyang Rihui said that according to observations, in recent years, the business teams of many e-commerce platforms have changed their concepts and started to return to the business logic centered on consumers, paying attention to listening to the opinions of consumers and merchants, continuously adjusting platform rules, jointly creating a good ecology, and continuously achieving value co-creation and value sharing.

"Only by treating merchants and consumers well can e-commerce platforms have long-term competitiveness."

Since entering September, Pinduoduo has further launched a series of combinations such as transaction fee reduction and deposit reduction, actively giving up some short-term profits, and also aiming to pursue "higher quality growth" with merchants.

In recent years, China's platform economy has developed rapidly, playing an important role in improving resource allocation efficiency and promoting technological and industrial innovation.

Relevant data statistics show that the total value of China's digital platforms accounts for 22.5% of the global total, ranking second.

By the end of 2023, there were 22 platform companies with a market value of more than 10 billion yuan.

The total revenue of the top ten listed platform companies was 3.6 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.7%, with the growth rate turning from decline to rise, and the total net profit reached 385.44 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 42.4%.

The platform economy has given birth to a large number of flexible employment and new employment forms, providing employment opportunities for a large number of labor-age population.

As an important part of the platform economy, the high-quality development and model innovation of e-commerce platforms are crucial for the high-quality development of China's digital economy.

In the new stage of e-commerce, platforms such as Pinduoduo are increasing their investment in ecological construction, which will bring more inclusive benefits to both the supply and demand sides.

"China's e-commerce platforms have entered a new stage of high-quality development from the initial 'low-price competition'.

Although low prices can meet the needs of some consumers at present, with economic development, people's requirements for product and service quality are getting higher and higher, so it is necessary to focus on improving product quality and perfecting platform ecological construction."

Ouyang Rihui said that efforts should also be made to promote digital transformation, technological innovation, and business model innovation.

For example, Pinduoduo chooses to focus on agriculture, which is to start making articles in To B, instead of continuing to be obsessed with "rolling down" in To C, and starts to transform from the perspective of serving small and medium-sized enterprises, which is the king's way for future development.

Zhao Xue, a research assistant at the Institute of Law of the Hebei Academy of Social Sciences, said that promoting the high-quality development of the platform economy is a systematic project that requires the joint efforts of the government, enterprises, and all sectors of society.

In the long run, it is necessary to continuously create a good business environment and institutional environment to promote the stable and far-reaching development of the platform economy.

With the progress of technology and changes in market demand, the platform economy has shown new trends and characteristics.

Relevant departments and enterprises should pay close attention to industry dynamics and the forefront of technology, and adjust development strategies and directions in a timely manner to ensure that the platform economy is always on the track of high-quality development.