FoA 253: Social E-commerce and Gamifying Groceries with Xin Yi Lim of Pinduoduo

<p><strong>Please participate in our</strong> <a href= "https://airtable.com/shrCB33GWIUCIxVRU"><strong>listener survey</strong></a> <strong>to help us focus the direction of the show: <a href= "https://airtable.com/shrCB33GWIUCIxVRU">https://airtable.com/shrCB33GWIUCIxVRU</a> </strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">E-commerce is nothing new. I think all of us have probably bought more online than ever this past year. But the company we’re featuring today,</span> <a href= "https://stories.pinduoduo-global.com/?source=google&medium=cpc&campaign=11723733723&adgroup=118689887443&device=c&keyword=pinduoduo&matchtype=e&gclid=CjwKCAjw6qqDBhB-EiwACBs6x8gRI5NNPr08NHmxatb-uXxbALe-e2MnLL4HQENDbI6VYPh-4mt11xoCm_YQAvD_BwE"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Pinduoduo</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">, has taken this to a whole other level by gamifying e-commerce and making it a social experience. A big part of their strategy is selling agricultural products online. One of the biggest drivers changing the future of agriculture is consumer preferences, what they buy and how they buy it. Today we explore some pretty incredible insights into how this is changing in China. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">We have on the show Xin Yi Lim, who is the executive director of Sustainability and Agricultural Impact at Pinduoduo. The platform, which has been described as “where Costco meets Disney”, started in 2015 and has grown to over 700 million active users in China. Before joining Pinduoduo in 2018, Xin Yi worked for SIngapore’s sovereign wealth fund, GIC, both in its Singapore and New York offices as a technology and media analyst. </span></p> <p><strong><em>“Really what we are trying to provide is a way for producers or merchants to sell a larger volume of products in a shorter period of time. And in so doing, they can reap the benefits of economies of scale and how we do that is through this notion of a team purchase. So it starts off by the realization that for a lot of people, what you actually wan