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Apr. 20 (NBD) -- Chinese e-commerce platform Pinduoduo (Nasdaq: PDD) announced Sunday night that it plans to subscribe 200 million US dollars worth of convertible bonds issued by Chinese home electronics retailer Gome Retail Holdings ("Gome", 00493.HK).

Besides, Pinduoduo is to sell products of Gome, while Gome, in turn, will share its logistics and after-sales service network with Pinduoduo.

Encouraged by the news, shares of Gome opened over 30 percent higher on Monday and closed at HK$ 0.85 on the day, up 16.44 percent.

As a traditional offline retailing giant, Gome has been stepping up "going online" efforts in recent years. However, it did not turn out very well. Its offline sales still contributed as highly as 83 percent to its total revenue last year. Via the partnership, the electronics retailer will gain access to Pinduoduo's nearly 600 million users.

The cooperation also presents a chance for Pinduoduo to increase single order price and spending of active buyers through selling electronics products, as the company's 50 percent gross merchandise value (GMV) comes from apparel and fast-moving consumer goods and 13.5 percent GMV from agricultural products.

Through the cooperation, Anxun Logistics under Gome, which has over 6,000 offline service sites, will be a logistics service provider for Pinduoduo as well. It is noticed that this is the first time for Pinduoduo to deploy medium and large package logistics service.

Comparing with its rival Alibaba and JD.com, Pinduoduo lags behind in the logistics domain. Alibaba, for instance, not only has its own logistics company Cainiao Network but also holds shares in Best Logistics, YTO Express, STO Express and ZTO Express.

But with orders keep increasing, it is vital for Pinduoduo to keep up by deploying its own logistics system. In addition to the partnership with Gome's Anxun Logistics, Pinduoduo is also reportedly to have talks with J&T Express over cooperation.

In recent years, the number of packages on Pinduoduo is seeing spiking. Last year, the number of parcels generated through Pinduoduo totaled 19.7 billion, an increase of 77 percent year on year, accounting for one-third of businesses of delivery companies across the country, according to its financial statement.

Email: gaohan@nbd.com.cn