PDD Holdings Inc will celebrate its 10th anniversary this September.

In China's internet commerce history, a decade may not seem lengthy, but it's sufficient for a startup to complete the full journey from peripheral breakthrough to reshaping the industry landscape — especially when it was born facing established e-commerce empires, making this growth trajectory even more significant as an era-defining case.

In 2015, amid such stock market competition, PDD Holdings found an unconventional breakthrough path. It capitalized not only on traffic dividends from county-level markets but also demonstrated precise insight into the tiered characteristics of China's consumer market. This rise represents the most exemplary "overtaking on a curve" case in the e-commerce sector during the mobile internet era.

After ten years, the e-commerce industry's competitive focus has shifted from "incremental competition" to "stock market competition," with the industry once again falling into homogeneous competition over "territory." At this moment, PDD Holdings demonstrates the same "contrarian thinking" as ten years ago — instead of joining this traffic battle, it has shifted its strategic focus to the deeper industrial end.

At ten years old, PDD Holdings stands at a new crossroads — can it truly build an ecosystem that balances commercial and social value through investments in the industrial depths?

**Counter-cyclical Composure**

The e-commerce landscape in Q2 2025 was more intense than summer heat. Major platforms engaged in close combat around new formats like instant retail and local lifestyle services, competing for every inch of "territory."

However, PDD Holdings' actions reflected a "counter-cyclical" composure: instead of joining this traffic battle, it launched a "trillion yuan support" strategy based on the "100 billion reduction" plan, marking the first "trillion-level" merchant support initiative in the e-commerce industry.

The weight of this strategy was evident in the Q2 financial report released on August 25, 2025. Quarterly revenue reached 104 billion yuan, up 7% year-over-year; net profit attributable to ordinary shareholders was 30.754 billion yuan, down 4% year-over-year. This decline narrowed compared to the previous quarter and exceeded market expectations.

The slowing revenue growth and consecutive quarterly net profit declines don't reflect weak growth but rather a proactive choice to "sacrifice short-term profits for long-term strategy."

Companies that dare to apply their own brakes aren't lacking forward momentum but possess sufficient confidence. Q2 2025 financial data shows quarterly net cash flow from operating activities of 21.6 billion yuan. As of June 30, PDD Holdings' total cash and short-term investments reached 387.1 billion yuan, up 16.4% from 331.6 billion yuan at the end of 2024, demonstrating robust overall financial health.

"We have invested and will continue to invest substantial resources to support the merchant ecosystem," said Chen Lei, Chairman and Co-CEO of PDD Holdings after the earnings release, explaining the logic behind "slowing down."

At a critical juncture when merchants face challenges, PDD Holdings chose not to contract but to double down on the "100 billion support plan" — not spending money on short-term volume-boosting marketing, but investing in the merchant ecosystem to help them weather cycles and find new opportunities.

From domestic merchant support to global business model exploration, this investment embodies the long-term calculation of "weathering difficulties with merchants, then growing together." After all, a platform's foundation has never been temporary transaction volumes but ecosystem resilience tied together with merchants.

This carries some idealism. Rather than short-term growth figures, it cares more about: Can merchants operate more stably? Can agriculture become smarter? Can the platform maintain those "long-term correct" elements through industry ups and downs?

Looking back at the year of "100 billion reduction" implementation, the platform has saved astronomical operating costs for millions of merchants: promotional service fee returns alone exceeded 10 billion yuan, with many merchants saving millions in promotional costs annually, essentially putting profits directly into their pockets.

The "trillion yuan support" upgrade pushes this "profit-sharing" to new dimensions — covering not only small and medium merchants but also new-quality merchants and brand merchants, from commission reduction to efficiency improvement, from traffic allocation to resource connection, with every investment targeting industry "pain points."

"We will continue to adhere to long-termism and deeply advance the 'trillion yuan support' strategy" — this statement contains no flashy slogans but reveals PDD Holdings' unchanged foundation over ten years.

**Agricultural Product Sales Maintain Rapid Growth**

This dedication to industry is particularly evident in the agricultural products sector.

Before the Q2 earnings release, PDD Holdings delivered a "2025 Agricultural Products Upstream Half-Year Report": under "Duo Duo Good Specialties" support, agricultural product sales surged 47% year-over-year, post-2000 generation agricultural merchants increased over 30%, and SKUs of premium varieties and new-quality products rose 54%.

Agriculture has always been an unavoidable battlefield in PDD Holdings' "long-termism." As a platform that started with agricultural product upstream, its investment in agriculture has never been "charitable decoration." Like the Smart Agriculture Competition now in its fifth edition, it has long transcended simple technical competition.

At this July's preliminary round, 46 global teams brought their respective "black technologies": AI crop cultivation, hydroponic systems, ecological seedling technology — cutting-edge achievements once hidden in laboratories now had the opportunity to appear together.

More crucially, this competition doesn't play "armchair strategy" — in the second half's finals, contestants must move laboratory technology to real fields to test whether these achievements can be implemented. From technological research to commercial application, PDD Holdings aims to build a bridge, letting agricultural technology move from ivory towers to crop fields, truly helping farmers improve yields and agriculture enhance quality and efficiency.

Behind these agricultural data and competition platforms are real changes in countless agricultural production areas — seafood from Zhoushan, Zhejiang; grain and oil from Jingzhou, Hubei; fruits and vegetables from Shangqiu, Henan; potato chips from Kunming, Yunnan. These agricultural specialties once "hidden in mountains unknown to people" are accelerating from villages to cities through PDD Holdings' channels.

Like Yunnan's potato chips, this authentic local product has become a key support target of "Duo Duo Good Specialties." When PDD Holdings' orders flood into Yunnan's mountain villages like spring tide, guaranteed purchase prices are no longer paper promises but bulging money bags at farmers' waists. Growers once worried about basic needs can now queue at banks to make deposits.

This is perhaps more convincing than any financial report figures because it transforms the word "support" into tangible benefits ordinary people can touch.

Hubei's specialty rice follows the same pattern. Previously, Hubei rice's "pain point" was lack of unified standards, with farmers growing rice by experience and processing plants operating "extensively." Later, "contract agriculture's" firm approach forced partner factories to transform — if you want to take our orders, you must meet our standards, upgrading every link from grain screening to processing technology.

Gradually, rice quality finally stabilized. Platforms like PDD Holdings act like bridges for merchants — connecting quality control from fields to actual consumer needs.

**Building "Moats" for the Platform**

From starting with agricultural products to becoming a "blood-maker" for various industrial belts, PDD Holdings has never taken an easy path, but in this process, we can see its clear logic and decisive actions.

The first direct action is proactive traffic allocation, ensuring small and medium merchants no longer worry about "good wine fears deep alleys"; offering low-rate incentives to directly reduce merchant operating burdens, returning profit margins to practitioners.

More thoughtfully, it provides supporting technical toolkits and data analysis services — whether new small sellers or individual merchants wanting to upgrade, all can use these "digital weapons" to understand consumer needs and optimize store operations.

Results quickly appeared: seller repurchase rates improved, merchants relying on quality and service to retain customers no longer needed to compete in "low-price involution," and platform ecosystem vitality followed suit. When small and medium merchants can earn money and see hope, they naturally invest more effort in products and services.

This is like loosening soil and fertilizing land, growing not "fast-growing, fast-dying" low-price goods but "flourishing" quality supply.

The second action involves careful supply chain work. E-commerce competition ultimately relies on "fulfillment efficiency" and "cost control," which PDD Holdings clearly understands.

It strengthens integration with third-party logistics, consolidating scattered logistics resources for smoother, faster product flow from warehouses to consumers, while accelerating investment in self-developed intelligent scheduling systems, using big data and algorithms to optimize delivery routes.

Additionally, PDD Holdings' "E-commerce Westward" initiative eliminated logistics transfer fees for western regions, further activating economic vitality between eastern and western areas.

The value behind this is felt by both merchants and users: unit delivery costs decreased, orders previously abandoned due to expensive logistics now have profit margins, and users receive packages faster.

The third action, as mentioned earlier, is inscribing "long-term value" into strategic DNA. PDD Holdings' management states, "We care more about platform ecosystem health and sustainability — we'd rather sacrifice short-term profits to ensure development foundations for the next three to five years."

This statement contains clear trade-offs: it no longer pursues the numerical thrill of "short-term revenue surges" but willingly invests real money in "invisible places" like merchant support and supply chain construction.

Perhaps short-term, this investment will make profit statements less "impressive," but long-term, it builds "moats" for the platform, ensuring PDD Holdings' ecosystem is no longer the fragile model of "attracting users with low prices."

After all, e-commerce's core has never been "who sells cheaper" but "who helps merchants operate better, users buy more value, and industries run more stably."

Over ten years, e-commerce industry practices have changed repeatedly. As PDD Holdings focuses on these "long-term correct" matters, it may be building not just a healthier internal ecosystem but providing the entire e-commerce industry with new possibilities: less "involutionary territory-grabbing," more "blood-making development."

This transformation from "disruptor" to "builder" may define China's e-commerce competitive paradigm for the next decade.