This article only represents the author's own views.
Chinese goods are famous for their relatively solid value at low costs – a reputation that turbocharged the rise of some e-commerce platforms during the pandemic. But now one of the highest flyers in that group, PDD Holdings Inc. (PDD.US), is coming back to earth as a growing number of foreign governments say “no” to its ultra bargain-basement goods.
PDD brings low-cost Chinese goods to global e-commerce buyers through its Temu marketplace, which has become a major growth engine for the company since its launch in 2022. But after making strong progress in its first two years, 2024 has become a year that Temu and PDD might rather forget. In addition to the usual competition as names like Amazon (AMZN.US) fight back, the company is also facing the potential of having to pay tariffs on its goods shipped to markets like the U.S. And in the latest string of bad news, Temu has been ordered to suspend its operations in Vietnam.