Shares in Pinduoduo rose more than one-fifth after the Chinese ecommerce group announced on Tuesday that it would donate $1.5bn in future earnings to charity as it posted its first quarterly profit since its initial public offering three years ago.
Pinduoduo, which pledged to contribute towards the development of agriculture until its donations reached Rmb10bn, became the latest Chinese tech group to make a high-profile foray into philanthropy amid a sweeping regulatory assault on the sector.
Tencent announced last week that it would set aside Rmb50bn for a “common prosperity programme”, a declaration that followed calls by President Xi Jinping to foster “common prosperity” in the face of growing social inequality.