Following the release of PDD Holdings Inc's full-year 2025 financial report, the Chinese e-commerce giant has officially unveiled the core component of its "replicating another PDD in three years" strategy—the "New Pinmu" initiative. This move is widely seen as a strong signal of PDD's transition from a "channel-first" approach to a dual-driven model focusing on both brand development and supply chain enhancement.
On the day of the earnings release, PDD announced the official establishment of the "New Pinmu" specialized company in Shanghai, with an initial cash injection of 15 billion yuan and a planned total investment of 100 billion yuan over the next three years. The initiative aims to integrate the supply chain resources of "PDD + Temu," launch a self-operated brand model, and systematically incubate brands targeting the global market.
However, the specifics of "New Pinmu" remain unclear to outsiders. Questions arise about what makes "New Pinmu" innovative, how it plans to achieve the goal of replicating PDD, and whether this strategy can help the company navigate intense market competition and complex international conditions.
Industry observers believe that "New Pinmu" is not merely a simple business expansion for PDD but a comprehensive upgrade of its supply chain from the inside out. Regarding how "New Pinmu" will operate, renowned investor Duan Yongping provided a key analysis on the Xueqiu platform, offering valuable insights. "It is a natural step for PDD to venture into branding," Duan analyzed. "They understand which products have high demand and can optimize these high-volume items—ensuring good quality while eliminating intermediaries to achieve low prices. This approach shares similarities with Costco's curated model."
According to official disclosures, "New Pinmu" is not simply PDD's self-operated business but an independent commercial entity centered on the logic of "self-operated brands + global incubation." It will leverage the vast consumer data accumulated by PDD domestically, combined with Temu's overseas fulfillment network, to directly participate in product definition, design, and brand operations. Duan Yongping compared PDD's future branding efforts to Costco's model, suggesting that PDD does not need to brand all products but should focus on selecting representative items with substantial traffic potential.
It is speculated that "New Pinmu" may initially limit its SKUs to around 4,000, aligning with Costco's highly selective strategy. By cutting redundant intermediate links and directly connecting factories with consumers, it aims to deliver "quality products at affordable prices." The uniqueness of "New Pinmu" lies in its extensive resource backing. It benefits not only from PDD's deep roots in domestic industrial clusters but also from the integrated supply chain resources of Temu overseas. This means that brands incubated under "New Pinmu" are inherently equipped with "global expansion" capabilities, moving beyond merely selling domestic products abroad to leveraging China's systemic supply chain advantages for high-standard output, transitioning from "capacity export" to "industrial capability export."
The confidence behind "New Pinmu" also stems from PDD's decade-long deep transformation of China's supply chain. From its group-buying model to the "new quality supply" strategy, PDD has avoided building factories from scratch like traditional brands. Instead, it acts as a "partner" to industrial clusters, assisting traditional factories in transitioning from OEM to OBM. Heavy investment in the supply chain is a core part of the "New Pinmu" strategy. It is reported that "New Pinmu" has already formed specialized teams to deeply engage with industrial clusters.
To date, the "new quality supply" team has visited over 100 high-quality manufacturing clusters, including Yiwu cosmetics, Shenzhen electronics, Shandong snacks, Shaodong luggage, Pinghu down products, and Weihai fishing gear. The team has深入到 raw materials, components, and other supply chain segments, promoting incremental innovation across the chain and addressing issues of homogeneous competition to facilitate brand transformation. Sources close to PDD revealed that efforts to drive transformation through deep industrial cluster engagement were underway even before "New Pinmu" was publicly disclosed.
In Weihai, Shandong, known as the "Fishing Gear Capital of China," PDD witnessed a turnaround driven by product strength. Zhang Rongbo and Sun Zhongwen, initially outsiders to the fishing gear industry, used PDD's data insights to break industry norms. Zhang's brand "Diaomi" keenly identified young consumers' demand for affordable yet professional lure rods. Leveraging PDD's massive order volume, they achieved scaled production, reducing the price of professional lure rods from around 1,500 yuan to 99 yuan through optimized supply chains and self-developed guide ring technology. This "dimensional reduction" strategy not only helped "Diaomi" sell 600,000 rods annually but also built a product moat beyond channel advantages.
Sun Zhongwen used PDD's data feedback to reverse-optimize the carbon cloth arrangement in fishing rods, reducing weight by 10 grams and cutting production cycles from 45 days to 15–20 days. This closed-loop of "production-supply-sales-research" based on platform data exemplifies PDD's core capability in supply chain investment: not only driving sales but also empowering product innovation.
In Yongkang, Zhejiang, the "Hardware Capital" once faced severe homogeneous competition. The brand "Yizhifu" under Denuo Company struggled with difficult OEM payments and thin profits. Founder Zhou Zhiyu attempted e-commerce but initially lost millions due to unfamiliarity with platform rules. A turnaround came when they embraced PDD's "new quality supply" strategy. PDD not only provided traffic but also built a moat for the brand through its "Black Label" certification system. Certified merchants could focus on product quality instead of endless price wars.
By analyzing PDD's backend data, Yizhifu identified细分 cooking needs in modern households and launched a "breakfast pan" specifically for frying eggs and sausages, quickly becoming a hit with daily sales of 2,000 units. Similarly, "Lanjieshi," founded by post-95s entrepreneur Sheng Lu, improved its iron pan craftsmanship based on PDD feedback, addressing issues like sticking and lid deformation, leading to leading sales of its lightweight iron pans.
In Pinghu, Zhejiang's down jacket cluster, PDD facilitated a shift from "export processing" to "brand premium." Luo Binhan Chairman Xu Zhong, a former soldier initially hesitant about e-commerce, formed a professional team to join PDD in 2022 and reaped significant benefits. By partnering with celebrity Yang Chaoyue and obtaining PDD's Black Label authorization, Luo Binhan increased its average order value from 299 yuan to 500–600 yuan, transitioning from "selling products" to "building a brand." Aipunuosi, through brand authorization from "Yalu" and PDD's flash sales and billion-yuan subsidy campaigns, saw annual sales grow from 10 million yuan to 47 million yuan.
Behind these cases, PDD is using brand support to change the long-standing position of domestic supply chains at the bottom of the "smile curve," elevating Chinese manufacturing to higher value chain segments.
Can the goal of "replicating another PDD in three years" be achieved? This is not just a slogan but a bold bet based on real data and global布局. Combining Temu's overseas trajectory with the latest financial figures, the feasibility of this goal becomes clearer. PDD's 2025 full-year report shows revenue reaching 431.8 billion yuan, a 10% year-on-year increase, with Q4 revenue at 123.9 billion yuan, up 12% year-on-year. While revenue growth remains steady, the decline in net profit underscores PDD's commitment to heavy supply chain investment.
The implementation of this strategy relies on strong financial backing. From the "100-billion-yuan support" plan launched last April to the 100-billion-yuan investment in "New Pinmu," PDD is converting profits into deep supply chain support. Behind the financial performance is a strategic choice to trade short-term profits for long-term competitive barriers. Through these investments, PDD is transforming its relationship with the supply chain from loose "merchant recruitment" to deeply integrated "co-construction."
As co-chairman Zhao Jiazhen stated, the company is committed to investing heavily in China's supply chain with a "nail-driving" spirit. This deep involvement allows PDD to access high-quality supply at minimal cost. The success of "New Pinmu" will also depend significantly on Temu's ability to replicate its overseas model. Data shows that PDD's cross-border e-commerce business has achieved considerable scale overseas, covering in three years what took domestic e-commerce a decade.
Temu's success essentially exports the systemic advantages of China's supply chain globally. Through its "fully hosted model," it directly connects Chinese factory capacity with overseas consumers, solving challenges like difficult出海, high logistics costs, and compliance issues for small and medium-sized factories. Now, "New Pinmu" applies this model反向 to the domestic market—using the platform's data and channel advantages to help domestic factories build brands. Hong Yong, associate researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, believes that by creating brand advantages, products can achieve differentiation and premium capability, shifting from price competition to value competition, leading the industry out of homogeneous competition toward brand development.
Returning to Duan Yongping's perspective, his optimism about PDD's branding efforts stems from its alignment with商业本质—creating value for consumers. PDD is not building虚 brands but "high-volume" brands. By achieving extreme supply chain efficiency, it sells quality products at low prices, potentially forming its deepest moat. The launch of "New Pinmu" makes this "invisible" moat explicit. It is no longer just a traffic distribution platform but a super brand operator capable of defining products and incubating brands. In an era of simultaneous消费升级 and rational consumption, such "new domestic brands" offering high quality and affordability have vast market potential.
This transformation in 2026 marks PDD's entry into the deep-water zone of "deepening supply chain engagement and incubating new brands." As Duan Yongping noted, selecting the right high-volume products, ensuring quality, and reducing prices is the most natural business approach. "This is essentially what Costco does, and it could become very powerful in ten years." Focusing on "replicating another PDD in three years," PDD may be using the most fundamental business logic to drive a new round of upgrades in Chinese manufacturing.
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