(Yicai Global) April 23 -- Chinese e-commerce firm Pinduoduo has begun offering appointment booking services for Covid-19 nucleic acid tests a day after rival JD.Com unveiled a similar service.

Pinduoduo has teamed up with BGI Genomics, which has set up its first online shop on Pinduoduo, to arrange tests for individuals and groups in 10 cities for the time being, the e-commerce platform said today. Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Wuhan and Chengdu are among the available cities.

JD.Com announced yesterday that it was offering a similar service in 11 cities and planned to roll it out to a total of 50.

Chinese authorities called on enterprises to improve testing for the virus yesterday and related stocks jumped this morning. BGI [SHE:300676] was up 2.45 percent at CNY110.50 (USD15.59) at the lunch break today.

Editor: James Boynton