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Pinduoduo

Why Google suspended China’s Pinduoduo app?

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After malware problems were discovered on versions of the Chinese e-commerce application outside Google’s app store, Google suspended the Play edition of PDD Holdings Inc.’s Pinduoduo app for security reasons, a company spokesperson said on Tuesday.

The spokesperson said in a statement that “Off-Play versions of this app that have been found to contain malware have been enforced on via Google Play Protect,” adding that the Play version of the app has been suspended for security reasons.

Pinduoduo
Image Source: wsj.com

Pinduoduo, a well-known e-commerce app in China, frequently gives users discounts when they purchase several items. Users were advised by Google on Tuesday to remove any Pinduoduo apps that hadn’t been downloaded from the Google Play Store.

Also Read: Trump returns to YouTube and Facebook after a two-year ban

Websites that enable users to download mobile apps without visiting official stores frequently have downloads of Android and even iOS apps available. According to Google’s statement, the enforcement of Google Play Protect has been configured to prevent efforts to install the aforementioned malicious apps.

Users who downloaded malicious copies of the app to their devices are notified and asked to uninstall the app. Pinduoduo was still available for download from Apple’s iOS store on Tuesday, but it was unclear whether there were any comparable security issues with the app for Apple users.

With the help of Google Play Services, Google Play Protect scans Android-based gadgets for possibly harmful apps and works to stop the downloading of malicious apps.

A Pinduoduo spokesperson told Reuters in an email that “Google Play has informed us this morning that Pinduoduo App has been temporarily suspended as the current version is not compliant with Google’s Policy, but has not shared more details.”

According to Pinduoduo, there are a number of additional apps that Google Play has temporarily suspended. He added that there are numerous causes for this.

Pinduoduo, which is primarily used in China, has been suspended amid heightened tensions between the United States and China over Chinese-owned apps like TikTok, which some American lawmakers claim pose a danger to national security.

According to their claims, these applications could be utilized to surveil American users. TikTok is at an impasse as legislators appear nearer than ever to taking the historic step of completely blocking the app.

The U.S. app’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, may be compelled to sell it to another business under duress from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which examines transactions that might have an impact on national security.

The RESTRICT Act, a bipartisan legislation introduced in the Senate this month, empowers the US Commerce Secretary to impose sanctions against foreign technology firms and urges the intelligence community to make risk assessment information publicly available.

Also Read: Amazon to Cut 9,000 More Jobs, Deepening Biggest Pullback Ever

On Tuesday, shares of PDD Holdings decreased 1.8% in premarket trading. The development coincides with U.S. government efforts to strengthen its cyber security measures in response to a constant rise in hacking and other cybercrimes targeting the nation. China and Russia were cited as the two biggest threats to the USA in the government’s newly released cybersecurity strategy.

Target Corporation

Target Corporation – Top Retailer In The United States Who Has Donated 5% Of Its Profits.

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Target Corporation is amongst the most recognizable brands worldwide and a top retailer in the United States. Since 1946, the company has donated 5% of its profits, which amounts to millions of dollars per week in today’s values. Target has its stores in all 50 States in the USA.

About The Company

American big-box retailer Target Corporation has its corporate headquarters in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is listed on the S&P 500 Index and is the eighth-largest retailer in the USA. In 1962, Minneapolis’ Dayton’s department store created Target as its discount arm. As of 2022, Target has 1,934 stores in the USA and is ranked 32nd on the 2022 Fortune 500 list. In order to provide its consumer base with a wide selection of high-quality products, Target hosts several well-known brands. Top firms like Apple, Dyson, Disney, Johnson, and Johnson, and Fisher-Price are some of the more well-known brands. Target stores sell a wide range of goods, including everything from baby apparel to luxury furnishings and technology.

Target Corporation
Image source: apparelresources.com

History Of The Company

George Draper Dayton, a banker, and property investor founded Target as Goodfellow Dry Goods in 1902. The name was altered to Dayton Dry Goods Company the following year, and in 1911 it was abbreviated to Dayton Company. In 1962, the first Target store was launched by Dayton Company as a budget-friendly alternative to Dayton’s department shops. In 1969, Dayton merged with J.L. Hudson Company to form the Dayton-Hudson Corporation. Dayton-Hudson later acquired US retailers like Mervyn’s and Marshall Field and Company. Target became the top revenue generator for Dayton-Hudson by 1975, and by 1979, its yearly sales had surpassed $1 billion. In 1990, the Target Greatland store debuted with a more extensive inventory than typical Target stores. The business built the first ever SuperTarget store in Omaha, Nebraska, five years later. This store had a full-service supermarket, a pharmacy, a photography studio, and eateries. In 2004, Dayton-Hudson sold Mervyn’s and Marshall Field and Company; changed its name to Target Corporation in 2000 to reflect a new emphasis on its Target locations. By 2010, Target had made a name for itself by providing high-end goods at affordable prices. Customers particularly favoured the limited-edition apparel lines produced through collaborations with renowned fashion designers like Zac Posen, Isaac Mizrahi, and Jason Wu. In 2012, Target debuted its first CityTarget store, catering to its urban customers.

International Operations

As of 2022, Target is only active in the United States; although, in the past, Target tried to open stores in Canada. As a result, the Target Corporation does not own other businesses or trademarks that use the term “Target” besides the United States. The stores under question are unrelated to a corporation in Australia with the same name and brand. Given that both the Target Corporation logo and the Target Australia brand’s logo are reasonable candidates for the term “Target,” it is plausible that the branding was copied legally or that the companies happened to have the same name and emblem by accident.

Controversies

In 2013, around 110 million Target customers were impacted by a data breach in Target’s systems. Data on customers’ names, phone numbers, emails, and mailing addresses were compromised. In 2015, Target and the impacted customers settled their class action lawsuit for $10 million. In 2014, a class-action lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court on behalf of Ohio residents who bought wet wipes under the Target brand. The Target Corporation was being sued on the grounds that the retailer deceived customers by labeling the packaging of its up & up product wipes as flushable and secure for septic and sewer systems. As a result of their purported ability to block compressors at municipal waste management facilities, the complaint also asserted the wipes posed a risk to the public’s health. In 2018, Alameda County DA O’Malley announced that Target would be fined $7.4 million for throwing out illegal e-waste, medical goods, and personal data.

Founder – George Dayton

American entrepreneur and philanthropist George Dayton is known for founding Dayton’s Department Store, which ultimately evolved into Target Corporation. He bought land on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis in 1902 and Goodfellow & Co., reorganizing it as Dayton’s Dry Goods, which developed into Dayton’s department store.

CEO – Brian Cornell

Brian Cornell serves as both the chairman and CEO of the Target Corporation. In 2014, he replaced Gregg Steinhafel as the CEO and chairman of Target. Cornell was behind the closing of the loss-making Target Canada during his leadership. Cornell was selected “Business CEO of The Year” by CNN in 2019.

Shopee

Shopee – Southeast Asia’s Largest e-Commerce Platform.

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Shopee is an online platform that provides customers with a simple, safe, and quick online purchasing experience. With over 343 million monthly active users as of 2021, it is regarded as Southeast Asia’s largest e-commerce platform.

About The Company

Shopee is a multinational technology business based in Singapore that primarily focuses on e-commerce. The company is headquartered in Singapore Science Park. It is part of the part company Sea Group. Shopee began its operations in 2015 from Singapore. The company also offers online shopping and selling services to buyers and sellers in numerous European and American nations.

History

In 2015, Shopee, a socially driven, mobile-centric platform where customers can browse, shop, and sell, made its debut in Singapore. This platform makes online shopping simple and safe for buyers and sellers by integrating logistical and payment assistance. In order to compete successfully with other e-commerce platforms in the market like Coupang, Lazada, Tokopedia, and AliExpress, Shopee, which was earlier an app, developed its own website. The company uses its own escrow service dubbed “Shopee Guarantee” to guarantee online shopping security as a way to set itself apart from competitors. It withholds payment from merchants until customers have received their items.

In 2019, the company inaugurated its new headquarters at Singapore Science Park. The new facility is six times bigger than the previous one, which was located in the Ascent Building, and has over 244,000 sq. feet of area that can house over 3,000 employees. WeWork in Singapore had previously leased this structure. Due to Shopee’s quick expansion, the lease was later given back to it. By doing this, it intensifies its effort to enter the digital economy.

Shopee
Image source: abplive.com

Business Model

Shopee began as a C2C (consumer to consumer) marketplace but has subsequently transitioned to a hybrid C2C and B2C format. To help its users logistically, it collaborates with more than 70 delivery service companies across its markets. For item pickup and drop in Singapore, Shopee partnered with logistics startup NinjaVan. In India, it collaborated with Delhivery and Ecom Express for the delivery of products. However, in 2022, the company announced that it is shutting its operations in India.

New Launches

An initiative named “Shopee University” was introduced by Shopee in 2016 to help local company owners and entrepreneurs establish their online stores in the Philippines. In the Philippines and Singapore, it introduced Shopee Mall in 2017, which featured over 200 brands. The specialized portal offers thousands of products from top regional stores and brands. Shopee Mall was developed to provide a more varied online shopping experience and to serve more established brands better.

2018 saw the opening of Shopee’s China Marketplace platform, which gives consumers in the Philippines and Singapore simple access to goods and products from Chinese vendors without paying shipping or agent costs. Shopee Philippines introduced Shopee Cares PH, a social-media customer support division active on Twitter and Facebook, in 2021. In 2021 it also introduced its food delivery services in the Malaysian and Thai markets.

Controversies

In 2019, Shopee Philippines was accused of defrauding Filipino fans of the Blackpink. #ShopeeScam became a trending topic on Twitter around the world.  The 568 top spenders on Shopee Philippines’ online store were given tickets to a Meet and Greet session as part of a campaign. However, a number of fans claimed that after receiving confirmation that they had won tickets, It then withdrew them. Others shared screenshots demonstrating how Shopee had altered the rules of the contest a day before this event. Currently, the Department of Trade and Industry is looking into Shopee.

Founder – Forrest Li

Forrest Li founded Shopee in 2015. He is a multibillionaire businessman from Singapore. He also founded Sea Limited. Garena and Shopee are subsidiaries of Sea Limited. Li, a Chinese national born in Tianjin, moved to Singapore soon after receiving an engineering degree from Shanghai Jiaotong University. He also has an MBA degree from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

CEO – Chris Feng

Chris Feng is the CEO of Shopee. He is also the CEO of Sea Group’s division for financial services and digital payments, called Seamonkey. Feng oversaw the mobile games department at Sea Group before assuming his present position. Before joining Sea Group, he was a member of the Southeast Asia core team of German startup Rocket Internet, which helped launch online stores like Lazada and Zalora. He was also Lazada’s chief purchasing officer and a regional managing director at Zalora.

Mercari

Mercari – A Japanese e-Commerce Company That Became The Country’s First Unicorn.

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Shintaro Yamada, a famous Japanese businessman founded Mercari, a Japanese e-commerce platform in 2013. The business was started in Japan, but it eventually entered the United States after a few years. So, currently, it serves two markets because in 2018 the European branch of Mercari was shut down as a “temporary retreat.” The present CEO of the company is Shintaro Yamada who has been holding the position since 2013. The mobile application of Mercari is a big hit among the Japanese people for two main reasons, security and ease to use. The Mercari marketplace app is the largest community-powered marketplace in Japan. Transactions worth more than 10 billion JPY are carried out on this platform every month. 

Early Days

When Mercari was officially launched in Japan, it had competitors like Yahoo!. But the reason why Japanese people rapidly accepted the usage of Mercari was some of its unique features that increased the convenience of the customers. Back in February 2013 when Yamada founded Mercari, its original name was Kouzoh, Inc. After a few months, the mobile app of the company for both Android and iOS devices was launched. It was shocking to witness that more than a million people signed in for this online shopping platform within a year. 

When Yamada decided to build the app, he planned to develop something similar to an online flea market. So, the features that were added in Mercari were well-thought and implemented. For example, putting up an item online for sale can be a rather lengthy and tiresome process and it requires to be done from a computer. Since It was developed mainly for smartphones, the selling process through this platform became a lot easier. Many Japanese people were attracted to Mercari due to this reason, especially who didn’t own a personal computer. Mercari increased the scope of customer-to-customer market service among the Japanese population. 

Mercari
Image source: prnewswire.com

Growth & Expansion

From the very beginning, the growth of Mercari has been spectacular. After a year, Mercari witnessed approximately 4.5 million people using the app and more than 100,000 new items getting listed on a daily basis. The total transaction per day also exceeded $10 million. As the company was becoming the hype, it attracted investors including Global Brain Corporation, Globis Capital Partners, World Innovation Lab, East Ventures, and many more. Due to its early and rapid growth, Mercari was taken into the international market (United States) in 2014. The company expanded so soon in the international market due to high funding (raised $75 million in Series D funding). 

After a couple of years in 2016, Company reached the $1 billion mark and became Japan’s first startup to gain unicorn status. This was a very big achievement in the startup community of Japan inspiring the people to come up with more innovative ideas. After expanding to the United States, the company’s next target was the UK but the European market of Mercari was closed shortly after its opening. This happened because the company was unaware of the local conditions there and thus the idea to launch Mercari in the European market backfired. As the company became bigger, it decided to go public in 2018 and offered its IPO. After the IPO, the company’s valuation became $7.4 billion. The company was also named “Best App” by Google Play for two consecutive years. 

Shintaro Yamada – Founder & CEO of Mercari

Being the CEO and founder of Mercari, Shintaro Yamada currently owns one-third of the company. Yamada started his career with Rakuten, a little e-commerce company that he joined as an intern. While he was in Rakuten, he developed an auction website for the company and he started getting rough ideas about the company’s operations and how an e-commerce company functions. After a few years, he decided to start his own venture and founded Mercari. 

Lightspeed

Lightspeed – Leading Montreal-based Software Provider For e-Commerce Services.

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Lightspeed Commerce, most commonly known as Lightspeed is a leading Montreal-based software provider for e-commerce purposes. Dax Dasilva is the founder of the company and founded this international conglomerate in 2005. Lightspeed, till now, offers its services and products mainly in the retail, restaurant, and hospitality businesses. Silva served as the CEO of the company for a long time until he stepped down in February 2022. The current CEO of the company is JP Chauvet who served as the President of Lightspeed and Dasilva took the position of Executive Chair. In the last 16 years, Lightspeed has expanded to various international grounds including New York, Silicon Valley, Amsterdam, Ghent, etc. 

History

Founded in 2005, the main aim of the company was to offer point-of-sale and e-commerce software to various businesses. Though Lightspeed’s first focus was getting a good grip on the retail sector then it eventually expanded its customer base to other sectors. With the help of the commercial software offered by the company, the small and medium-sized industries got a chance to compete with the larger chains. Due to the smart data-driven decisions that Lightspeed helped its customers make, it grew rapidly and expanded on a global scale. After almost a decade of doing business with the retail industry, the company decided to enter the hospitality sector in 2014. By this time it opened offices in various locations including Washington, Berlin, New York City, Olympia, etc. Lightspeed is financially backed by Accel Partners and iNovia Capital. 

In an investment round that took place in 2012, $30 million was raised by the company. By the end of 2013, the company’s report showed that it grew by 120% within a year in terms of annual transactions. Since it was growing at an impressive rate along with the funding it received, Lightspeed started making acquisitions. In 2013, Lightspeed acquired MerchantOS, a point of sale software developer followed by an HTML5 web-based product. By the end of 2013, the company had more than 15,000 store locations and its customers processed $7.5 billion.

Lightspeed
Image source: betakit.com

Success

As Lightspeed continued to make several acquisitions, it added Advanced Analytics to the company’s retail feature roster in 2014. In September 2014, the company led a funding round where it raised $35 million and it was mainly hosted by iNovia Capital. During this time, the company was preparing itself to expand into the restaurant and hospitality business, especially through a Belgian startup POSIOS. By the end of the year, Lightspeed was serving more than 21,000 businesses and its annual transactions increased from $6 billion to $8.2 billion. As the number of clients kept on increasing in 2015 Lightspeed was serving global clients spread across 30 countries. The client base also increased from 21,000 to 23,000 in a year. In an investment round in 2015 that was led by Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and Investissement Québec along with existing investors, the company raised $61 million. 

In October 2015, Lightspeed acquired an e-commerce software developer, SEOShop, and announced that it will be serving both brick and mortar and online retailers. SEOShop was further rebranded as Lightspeed eCom and then integrated with the company’s retail POS software. In 2017, there was a new venture capital funding round in which the company raised $160 million. In 2018, the company brought new members into the leadership and executive teams like Patrick Pichette and Paul McFeeters. Recently, the company has made three acquisitions, namely, Gastrofix (2020), ShopKeep (2020), and Vend (2021). 

About the Founder

Dax Dasilva is originally from Vancouver but he emigrated with his family to Canada when he was a kid. He was interested in coding from a young age and then he attended the University of British Columbia to study computer science. But later, he decided to explore some creative opportunities. He is also a well-known advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and he came out as a gay at the age of fourteen. After founding Lightspeed, it became one of the fastest-growing tech startups in Canada. 

Coupang

Coupang – An e-Commerce Company That Is Recognized As The Amazon Of South Korea.

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Founded in July 2010, Coupang is the second largest e-commerce marketplace in South Korea. The founder of the company is Bom Kim, a Korean-American businessman who is serving as the CEO of the company presently. Coupang is often compared to Amazon in South Korea because the company has expanded very rapidly and it is known for the fastest deliveries. The company is incorporated in Delaware, United States and apart from South Korea, recently it has entered the American stock market. In 2021, the company announced that it is expanding its business in Japan and Taiwan. Some of the other offices of Coupang are located in Seattle. Los Angeles, Shanghai, Mountain View, etc.

About Coupang

Coupang is not only a famous e-commerce company in South Korea but also recognized across the world as one of the biggest companies. The company’s growth has been exponential in the past few years and in the first quarter of 2021, sales of $4.26 billion were recorded. SoftBank majorly invested in the company when it was rising during 2015 and then in 2018 and currently, the company owns one-third of Coupang. The company is trying to create a better experience for the users every day by implementing innovative technologies. Both Forbes Magazine and MIT Technology Review recognized Coupang as one of the 50 smartest companies in the world. So, starting out only a decade ago, the company is making the same lists as Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Tesla.

Coupang’s fastest delivery is what makes it the most widely used e-commerce site in South Korea. In 2019, the company introduced a new feature called Dawn Delivery which means that if a customer orders something before midnight it will get delivered by 7 am in the next day. This feature helped the company grow very fast especially during the time of pandemic as people could get emergency supplies in less than half a day’s duration. Coupang’s IPO when entering the American market became the biggest IPO of an Asian company after the Alibaba Group.

Coupang
Image source: tellimer.com

History of the Company

Back in 2010 when Coupang was established it started out as an endeavor similar to Groupon. But within the first three years, Company crossed everyone’s expectations and left most of its competitors behind in the market. It was able to attract many large investors and in 2014 raised $300 million successfully from US investors and then in 2015 and 2018 raised $3 billion from SoftBank. SoftBank, today, owns a major portion of the company while the stakeholders are Greenoaks Capital, Maverick Holdings, Rose Park Advisors, BlackRock, and Bom Kim.

After eleven years of successfully establishing one of the largest Asian e-commerce companies, Coupang has a workforce of more than 50,000. It is because of the fastest deliveries that people in South Korea uses Coupang extensively. The company claims that 99.6% of the order received are delivered within 24 hours. The company uses Rocket Delivery Network and 70% of the South Korean citizens have a Coupang logistic center within a 10-minutes distance from their home.

Is Coupang better than Amazon?

Though in South Korea, Coupang is used extensively when compared to Amazon, the former has a very small customer base. Coupang has approximately 15 million customers whereas Amazon has over 100 million prime customers across the world. But, the customer base of Coupang will steadily increase because it is launching in overseas markets. Similar to Amazon Prime membership, Coupang has also launched a membership program (Coupang Wow Rocket Membership) and nearly 32% of the total customers are paying for it. The delivery speed of Coupang is unmatchable even for Amazon especially when it comes down to groceries.

About the Founder

Born in Seoul, Bom Kim left Korea at the age of seven and went to boarding school in Massachusetts. Later, he attended Harvard University followed by Harvard Business School but dropped out after six months. Before starting Coupang, he worked at Boston Consulting Group and currently his net worth is approximately $6.8 billion.