On March 21, 2023, CNN published an article entitled “Google suspends Chinese shopping app Pinduoduo over malware.” The CNN report stated “Google has suspended Pinduoduo, a popular Chinese budget shopping app, from its Play Store after finding malware in versions of the app. In a Tuesday statement, Google said versions of the app that are not in the Play Store have been found to contain malware.”
On this news, PDD’s stock price fell $3.35 per share, or 4.24%, to close at $75.58 per share on March 22, 2023.
Then on April 3, 2023, CNN published an article entitled “‘I’ve never seen anything like this:’ One of China’s most popular apps has the ability to spy on its users, say experts.” The article stated, “[i]n a detailed investigation, CNN spoke to half a dozen cybersecurity teams from Asia, Europe and the United States — as well as multiple former and current Pinduoduo employees — after receiving a tipoff. Multiple experts identified the presence of malware on the Pinduoduo app that exploited vulnerabilities in Android operating systems. Company insiders said the exploits were utilized to spy on users and competitors, allegedly to boost sales.”
On this news, PDD’s stock price fell $1.64 per share, or 2.19%, to close at $73.20 per share on April 4, 2023.