(Reuters) – China’s Pinduoduo Inc beat first-quarter revenue estimates on Friday, as more people shopped at its e-commerce platform during coronavirus lockdowns that shut down most brick-and-mortar shops.
Stay-at-home orders have boosted demand for online shopping as people stock up on groceries and food items from the comfort of their homes and sellers too turn to online platforms to run down their inventories with brick and mortar shops largely shut.
Net loss widened to 4.12 billion yuan in the quarter ended March 31, from 1.88 billion yuan, a year earlier.
The e-commerce company known for its deep discounts, said revenue rose 44% to 6.54 billion yuan ($916.63 million), beating estimates of 4.97 billion yuan, according to IBES data by Refinitiv.
Excluding items, the company lost 2.73 yuan per American depository share compared with estimates of loss of 1.97 yuan per ADS.
(Reporting by Neha Malara in Bengaluru and Sophie Yu in Beijing; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
