Photo/NBD

July 31 (NBD) -- Nasdaq-listed Chinese discounter Pinduoduo was accused of selling pirated Pipilu-series books by its author Zheng Yuanjie on Sunday.

The fair tale writer was first informed by his readers about this issue and the book later bought from an online store on Pinduoduo was proved to a pirated version with printed anti-fake mark. In addition, no permit for selling books can be found from the online store.

So far, Zheng has reported the case to Chinese departments concerned and he urged the discounter to stop selling related fake books and punish the violator. Moreover, he also noted that consumers who bought pirated books can claim compensation from the bookstore.

However, it is noteworthy that this is not the first time Pinduoduo is entangled with such scandals.

A large shareholder of Chinese TV maker Shenzhen Skyworth Digital Technology Co., Ltd. (000810.SZ) made a statement last Saturday, demanding Pinduoduo to stop selling counterfeit Skyworth TVs and saying that it reserves all rights to sue related parties.

It is noticed that a number of stores on the platform are selling counterfeit Skyworth TVs under fake brands. In addition, it is more jaw-dropping to see a 4K TV priced at 18,980 yuan (2,784.4 U.S. dollars) to be sold at 983 yuan (144.2 U.S. dollars) on the website.

According to the statistics from a retail research team of TF securities, 39 out of the 100 best-selling home appliances of the platform sold from June 28 to July 27 are suspected counterfeit products, but those products contrubuted 57.82 percent of total sales volume.

Depite fake product scandals,the online discounter still posted an exponential growth, amassing 340 million users in a mere of 3 years. The cheap prices of the goods sold on the website attract a large quantity of middle-aged countryside dwellers.

According to bid data service provider JIGUANG, 70 percent Pinduoduo users are female and 65 percent users are living in 3rd-tier or even smaller cities.

Email: tanyuhan@nbd.com.cn