“Those who do not like Pinduoduo have never tried it”: mentor of Pinduoduo founder

You might already know that Duan Yongping, a Chinese business and investment guru, has been a mentor of Pinduoduo founder Colin Huang. 

Duan founded consumer electronics company BBK in the 1990s, which later morphed into a series of companies: Oppo, Vivo, RealMe etc. He also built probably one of the most powerful distribution networks in China – founders of J&T Express and key early lieutenants of Mixue came from BBK’s distributors. 

Duan saw the potential of Colin Huang way before the latter founded Pinduoduo. In fact, when Duan spent US$620k to win an auction for lunch with Warren Buffett in 2006, he brought Huang with him. 

Duan & Buffett (left), Huang & Buffett (right) 

Buffett’s philosophy has guided a lot of Huang’s subsequent actions. 

Earlier this month (Jan 2025), Duan went back to China and attended a Q&A session with students at the duo’s alma mater – Zhejiang University. Many students asked a lot of questions ranging from investment tips to entrepreneurship to attitudes in life. 

Duan, right, at Zhejiang University

There were a few specific questions about Colin Huang and Pinduoduo which we found quite interesting. So we have transcribed those answers here: 

On Huang Zheng:

Question: Hello, Senior Duan, I am very happy to discuss this issue with you face to face. What I want to know is, since you and Colin Huang have a deep friendship, you may value some qualities in Colin Huang. What qualities of young people attract you? 

Duan: I think these traits have nothing to do with age. I don’t like dealing with people I can’t communicate with.

I really enjoy communicating with Huang because I think he is a person who looks at the essence (of things), just like me, which I think is more important.

Of course, he is also considered a young man. Speaking of me, I heard that I am also considered a young man. In fact, it comes back to what I said, if you want to do the right thing, and if you want to do things right, you have to think long-term.

I think Huang is such a person, so when we chat, we are always on the same wavelength, but most people are not like this. When I chat with many people, I often feel that it’s hard to communicate smoothly. So, I’m not sure if this counts as answering the question, but I think we should always return to the essence of things.

On PDD: 

Question:This is an alumnus, and he wants to ask Senior Duan that Pinduoduo, BBK OPPO, and Vivo all regard duty as their corporate culture, but there are huge differences in their business operations. How should we understand this difference?

Duan:I am very familiar with our company, but I don’t know much about Pinduoduo’s specific situation.

Because many people have told me this, and I said that it has more and more users and so many people like to use it, but you insist that it is doing the wrong things. What do you mean?

I know that when Huang first started his business, for example, when he was running Pinhaohuo (note: an earlier reincarnation of Pinduoduo), he was very concerned about agriculture, and he just wanted to ship agricultural products. He really did a lot of things, including a lot of the infrastructure he is doing now, which are related to this.

Pinhaohuo predates Pinduduo and focused on agricultural produce

When Pinduoduo was founded, I invested in him. But I didn’t know about it in advance. One day when we were on the phone, I asked him what he was doing, and he said he was doing this (i.e. Pinduoduo). I said, isn’t this the same as Pinhaohuo before? He said yes, but now it’s a little different, and it’s doing more things.

He wanted me to invest in them, so I asked him if they could make money. He said he didn’t know, but the user base was growing very fast, many people liked to use it, and suppliers were also very happy. They sold things that were not easy to sell before. Especially agricultural products, they started with agricultural products. You can imagine that if farmers’ oranges can’t be sold, they will rot. All fruits are the same. Through their channels, they really do a good job.

He asked me to join, and I asked if I could make money. He said he didn’t know. After listening to the growth rate, I said, okay, I will treat it as a charity, because such a fast growth rate means I am doing good. If I make money, I will donate it to my fund and treat it as charity. If I make money, but help so many people, it can also be considered charity.

Then I gave him a condition, saying that he should invest as much as he wanted me to.

He actually didn’t come to me because he was short of money, but to get me in as an investor. Of course, don’t tell this story to anyone else. I shouldn’t have said that. I forgot about it.

In fact, it is really powerful, and the number of users has been increasing. Those who don’t like it have never tried it. Many people have never tried it, so they think it is bad. I find it hard to understand this kind of thing.

On how Chinese companies can go global:

Question:Today, we have several outstanding project representatives here, including an alumnus, who wants to ask you, how can Chinese companies truly achieve globalization and localization?

Duan:Globalization is actually local globalization, but I think this so-called globalization is actually a fallacy, like a false proposition. In fact, you don’t need to pursue it. When the time comes, you will naturally go.

If you don’t have the ability or the need, you will be unable to do so. 

I’ll just use our company as an example. I remember when I first arrived in the United States, I thought, wow, the Super Bowl is a great place to advertise, and I thought if we had the right product, we would definitely break into that market. But we never did, and we didn’t find a suitable product to enter the US market, and we still haven’t done it today.

So Huang asked me that time, what do you think of the effectiveness of Temu’s advertisement on the Super Bowl (in 2023)? I said I saw it and asked him what he thought. He said the effect was pretty good.

I said, “Okay, you played two advertisements first?” He said he played four or five ads the next day, I don’t remember. So he got the point right away.

Temu’s first Super Bowl ad

Now I ask everyone in the United States, “Do you know Temu?” Almost everyone says they do. And many people who work in my family use Temu, even the helpers and housekeepers.

Although there are not many things I want to buy on the platform, there are indeed some things that many people buy. In the end, it still depends on the quality of the product. For these things, the model is still quite powerful, but the quality is moving forward step by step.