The rise of Pinduoduo and how it is disrupting Chinese e-commerce with Nicolas du Cray, Partner at Cathay Capital

You must have heard of the Chinese social commerce legend Pinduoduo, the fastest-growing mobile shopping platform featuring “team purchase” and social sharing function in China which became a $23 billion empire in under 4 years.

For this week’s episode, we invited Nicolas du Cray, an early investor of Pinduoduo and Partner at Cathay Capital - Innovation Fund to talk about Pinduoduo and Social Commerce in China. Nicolas shared how he decided to invest in this company, analyzed the strengths of Pinduoduo, and the challenges of internationalising the social commerce model. He also answered many questions collected from our listeners.

Show Notes:
0:00 - 1:24 Welcome Back to China Startup Pulse
1:26 - 2:00 Introducing Nicolas du Cray
2:06 - 3:16 Du Cray’s experience in China
3:16 - 3:49 Shift from Engineering to Venture Capital
3:49 - 4:27 What is Cathay Capital?
4:28 - 5:21 Importance of Venture Capital to Multi-National Corporations
5:22 - 7:25 Cathay Capital’s Investments and Trends in Chinese Innovation
7:26 - 8:28 Value of Foreign Venture Capital to Chinese Start Ups
8:30 - 9:06 What is Pinduoduo?
9:07 - 11:43 Social Commerce, Pinduoduo, and WeChat ecosystem
11:44 - 12:46 Cathay Capital Innovation and their Investment in Pinduoduo
12:47 - 15:22 Audience Question: History of Pinduoduo and Cathay Capital
15:22 - 17:53 Audience Question: Pinduoduo’s Innovation in E-Commerce
17:54 - 19:06 Growth Trigger of Pinduoduo
19:07 - 20:14 Pinduoduo’s Business Model and Competition in China
20:15 - 22:05 Audience Question: Challenges for Pinduoduo’s model going Abroad
22:05 - 23:05 Future of WeChat’s platform
23:06 - 23:35 Audience Question: Future of Pinduoduo
23:36 - 24:27 Does Nicolas use Pinduoduo?
24:31- 25:50 Signing Out and du Cray’s Contact Information

Feel free to leave a comment and start a conversation with us! If you have an ideal guest whom you would like to listen to, please let us know and we'll do our best to realize it!

Many thanks to our host Oscar Ramos and guest Nicolas du Cray, editor David and Geep, organizer Chinaccelerator and sponsor People Squared. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.com