Chinese e-commerce platform Pinduoduo listed on NASDAQ in July 2018. It was attacked by short-seller Blue Orca in November 2018 alleging that it was overstating gross merchandise value and revenue, while understating staff costs. The report had little impact and the allegations remain unproven. In September 2023, Grizzly Research attacked Pinduoduo claiming the Temu app contained malware, criticised poor disclosure of operating metrics, alleged faked orders and illicit traffic. The Financial TImes in March 2024 also questioned the low employee numbers, lack of logistics infrastructure and secrecy surrounding the business. These last two sets of allegations also had no material share price effect and are unproven. Separately GMT Research has concerns about the VIE structure; however, the risks we have highlighted do not entail accounting fraud.

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