Why the global quest to clone Pinduoduo won’t end well

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Thanks to Pinduoduo, community group buying has become a hot new trend in China. The model, in which consumers pool orders to enjoy deep discounts, also has the potential to take off in Indonesia’s lower-tier cities or rural areas. Meanwhile, a startup is billing itself the “Pinduoduo for India.”

But for startups to succeed in the space, it will take more than copy-pasting the Pinduoduo playbook.

In Indonesia, where certain infrastructure is underdeveloped, implementing this model will require solving pain points like high logistics costs. Offering steep discounts without a mighty manufacturing industry will prove hard.

Local social commerce startups are proving that an online-to-offline (O2O) approach, that sees community leaders serve as ecommerce hubs, is the way to go. It’s inevitable that major ecommerce players will take a closer look at the model.

In this week’s premium story, we explore how Indonesian startups are bringing a fresh take on ecommerce in the country’s lower-tier cities and why unicorns may not have the upper hand in this arena.

— Jofie

The big story

Indonesia’s unicorns have been avoiding community group buying, but the clock’s ticking

Image credit: Timmy Loen

Unlike in China, the archipelago’s ecommerce giants have not joined the community group-buying frenzy yet. But it may only be a matter of time.

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