On March 27, 2025, Hurun Global Rich List announced that the founder of Pinduoduo, Huang Zheng, ranked 39th globally with a fortune of 265 billion yuan. His wealth decreased by 120 billion yuan compared to 2024.
The list shows that Huang Zheng ranks 39th globally and 5th in China with a fortune of 265 billion yuan, a drop of 15 places from the previous year.
According to Hurun, Huang Zheng’s wealth has been like riding an elevator, soaring from the 50th floor to the 90th floor on the list, then dropping back to the 50th floor. His wealth increased by 160 billion yuan last year, but decreased by 120 billion yuan this year.
Pinduoduo’s cross-border e-commerce platform Temu faces strong competition from Shein, Amazon, and other players in the US market, as well as regulatory pressure in the United States, leading to slowed revenue growth. Additionally, Temu’s global expansion strategy in Europe, Japan, Southeast Asia, and other markets faces intense competition, with logistics and supply chain costs acting as limiting factors.
On March 20, Pinduoduo released its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2024 and the 2024 fiscal year. The financial report shows that in 2024, Pinduoduo recorded annual revenue of 393.836 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 59%, and net profit attributable to ordinary shareholders was 112.435 billion yuan, an 87% increase year-on-year.
In terms of revenue growth rate, Pinduoduo had a high growth rate of 89.68% in 2023, but it dropped to 59.04% in 2024.
Looking at the quarterly revenue growth in 2024, Pinduoduo’s quarterly revenue growth rates were 131%, 86%, 44%, and 24%, showing a continuous downward trend.
The growth rate of net profit attributable to ordinary shareholders of Pinduoduo also faced a similar predicament, declining from 246% in the first quarter of last year to 144% in the second quarter, 61% in the third quarter, and further falling to 18% in the fourth quarter.
Regarding the slowdown in performance growth, Pinduoduo executives mentioned in the financial conference call in the third quarter of last year that with intensifying market competition, a slowdown in revenue growth is inevitable.
In terms of legal risks, Pinduoduo is involved in 56,466 risk information from Tianyan, 105 judicial documents, 16,844 litigious relationships, 21,061 court notices, and 3,104 case filing information. There is a certain legal litigation risk in the Chinese market.
Given the current global economic environment where consumer purchasing power is decreasing and regulatory scrutiny in European and American markets is tightening, it may affect the future development of Temu.
In July 2020, Huang Zheng stepped down as CEO and was succeeded by Chen Lei. In March 2021, Huang Zheng announced in the 2021 annual shareholder letter that he would resign as chairman and Chen Lei would take over as CEO. After March 2021, Huang Zheng withdrew from the board and no longer participates in the daily operations of Pinduoduo.
Therefore, Huang Zheng’s only formal identity at present is the founder of Pinduoduo, but he is not responsible for the company’s operations and decision-making.