(Yicai) Jan. 4 -- Chinese e-commerce giant Pinduoduo no longer plans to introduce local services, such as on-demand delivery, restaurant bookings and cinema ticket sales, on its group-buying platform Duoduo Maicai as scheduled next month, The Paper reported today, citing a company insider.

Duoduo Maicai, which continues to operate as normal, started to recruit vendors in December to offer local services on the bulk-buy platform, but recruitment stopped during the last week of 2023, the report said.

Pinduoduo previously offered local services on a small scale, it added. No reasons were given for the suspension and it is not known if the project will be revived.

Pinduoduo had been planning to follow in the footsteps of major on-demand platforms such as Douyin and Meituan as the provision of local services becomes a lucrative sideline for many platforms. Douyin entered the takeout market in March 2023, going head-to-head with industry leader Meituan, the report said.

China’s local services market was worth CNY19.5 trillion (USD2.7 trillion) in 2020 and may almost double to CNY35.3 trillion by 2025, the report said, citing data from iResearch.

Editor: Kim Taylor