Rongbao · March | Pinduoduo GMV Reaches New "Trillion" Milestone, YITU Sets New World Record in Person Re-identification Algorithm

About Rongbao: Rongbao is a monthly digest that brings together notable news and insights from Gaorong Ventures and its portfolio companies. Each issue shares just 10 items — including key funding updates and milestones, but also new trends, innovations, and perspectives. As Gaorong Ventures works toward its vision of "creating a better life through innovation," we believe every step forward unlocks infinite possibilities.

New E-Commerce · Pinduoduo's 2019 GMV Crosses Trillion-Yuan Milestone; Announces $1.1 Billion Private Placement

On the evening of March 11 (Beijing time), Pinduoduo (NASDAQ: PDD) released its Q4 2019 and full-year financial results. For 2019, Pinduoduo achieved GMV (gross merchandise volume) of 1.0066 trillion yuan, up 113% year-over-year. Annual active buyers reached 585.2 million, with 48.9 million added in Q4 alone. Average annual spending per active buyer hit 1,720.1 yuan, up 53%. Average monthly active users on Pinduoduo's mobile app reached 481.5 million, up 77%. Full-year R&D spending totaled 3.87 billion yuan, up 247%. Sales and marketing expenses for Q3 and Q4 combined reached 16.18 billion yuan, with the "10 Billion Subsidies" program now covering all product categories directly.

On March 31, Pinduoduo announced that certain long-term investors had agreed to purchase newly issued Class A ordinary shares worth $1.1 billion through a private placement, representing approximately 2.8% of total shares outstanding. The company stated that proceeds would primarily support the upward distribution of Chinese agricultural products, reinforcing its position as the leading platform for agricultural e-commerce and accelerating urban-rural economic circulation; as well as helping export-oriented enterprises transform and upgrading China's C2M industrial clusters through "new infrastructure" investments. In 2020, Pinduoduo plans to expand the scope and intensity of its "10 Billion Subsidies" program in the new consumption sector, contributing further to stimulating domestic demand and employment.

Fresh Retail · Dingdong Maicai Continues Providing Healthy, Convenient Grocery Services; Home-Delivery and Contactless Economies Show Broad Prospects

On March 30, Shanghai Party Secretary Li Qiang visited Dingdong Maicai, encouraging the team to seize opportunities amid new circumstances and grow stronger. Since the outbreak, Dingdong Maicai has worked to organize supply sources, ensure quality, and stabilize prices, providing users with consistent healthy and convenient grocery services. The company has also partnered with time-honored brands and leading consumer goods companies to launch promotional campaigns and specialty consumption events.

Li Qiang noted that during the fight against the epidemic, the online economy, home-delivery economy, and contactless economy have demonstrated broad development prospects — representing major opportunities for internet innovators and lifestyle service companies. He urged companies to act early and proactively, tailoring supply innovations and technological support to different consumer segments, maintaining momentum in new online consumption formats, and maximizing the recovery and release of pent-up consumer demand.

New Brands · Yatsen Perfect Diary Breaks Ground on R&D and Production Base; Upon Completion, Will Become One of the World's Largest and Most Advanced Cosmetics Production Facilities

On March 11, Yatsen Perfect Diary (Guangzhou) R&D and Production Base officially broke ground at Mingzhu Industrial Park in Conghua District, Guangzhou. The project is a joint investment between Yatsen E-commerce (Perfect Diary's parent company) and COSMAX, currently the world's largest cosmetics OEM. Expected to commence operations in 2022, upon completion it will become one of the world's largest and most advanced cosmetics production facilities, initially focusing on R&D and manufacturing for Yatsen E-commerce's brand portfolio and accelerating the branding of domestic cosmetics.

During the special period, Yatsen E-commerce's online sales channels not only maintained "business uninterrupted, customer service online" but also actively expanded livestreaming operations, encouraging employees to participate in online broadcasts. According to statistics, in February alone, Perfect Diary conducted nearly 40,000 livestream sessions on Taobao Live, up 28% month-over-month, with sales up nearly 170%; average viewers per session on WeChat mini-program livestreams grew 3-10x month-over-month.

AI · YITU Sets New World Record in Person Re-Identification (ReID) Algorithm

Recently, YITU set new world records across the three most authoritative global datasets in person re-identification (ReID), pushing the state-of-the-art to new heights.

Note: YITU's algorithm results were achieved without using spatiotemporal information or re-ranking optimization.

Person re-identification (ReID), also called person re-ID, refers to retrieving individuals across multi-camera networks using comprehensive information such as gait and body characteristics. It is one of the most challenging and active research topics in computer vision following facial recognition. This time, YITU's self-developed algorithm refreshed all six records for Rank-1 accuracy and mean Average Precision (mAP) across the industry's most influential ReID datasets: Market1501, DukeMTMC-reID, and CUHK03.

YITU has already deployed ReID in multiple real-world scenarios, where data scale and problem complexity far exceed these three benchmark datasets. In practice, powered by its self-developed AI chip QuestCore™, YITU's ReID algorithm achieves accuracy comparable to facial recognition levels from 2017-2018 using only clothing and body characteristics. Going forward, YITU will continue heavy investment in AI R&D, enhancing the breadth and depth of technology deployment through software-hardware synergy, contributing to national new infrastructure construction.

Robotics · Roborock Enters Cordless Handheld Vacuum Market with First Product

Recently, Roborock (688169.SH) launched its first cordless handheld vacuum cleaner, the H6. This release signals Roborock's full entry into the handheld vacuum market, with the new category expanding the company's product portfolio.

The Roborock H6 is the world's first cordless handheld vacuum to use a polymer lithium battery. The ultra-light polymer battery offers 25% higher energy density than cylindrical lithium batteries, delivering up to 90 minutes of runtime in eco mode and 45 minutes in standard mode — providing ample cleaning time with no suction loss as battery depletes.

Roborock listed on the STAR Market in February. CEO Jing Chang noted that just as Roborock once overcame technical challenges to launch a high-value laser-navigated robot vacuum that accelerated industry development, this time the company is applying and innovating with polymer battery cells in the handheld vacuum space to solve the industry's core pain point of "short battery life" — bringing consumers an excellent, high-value handheld vacuum experience.

Smart Wearables · ZEPP Becomes Official Partner of Chinese Athletics Association; Will Co-Build Lab Based on Smart Hardware and Health Big Data

Recently, global smart wearables leader ZEPP (NYSE: HMI) formally signed a cooperation agreement with the Chinese Athletics Association, becoming the official partner for China's national track and field team and the CAA in the smart wearables and smartphones industries. ZEPP will leverage its accumulated expertise in smart hardware R&D and sports health big data to support the development of Chinese athletics.

The two parties plan to establish a joint athletics laboratory focused on health and sports. Based on ZEPP's smart wearable devices, the lab will use intelligent algorithm models and big data analytics to study massive datasets from both national team athletes and everyday fitness enthusiasts, producing professional research reports and industry standards to guide healthier, more effective training. This research will support both elite athletic training and the broader national fitness movement.

ZEPP has built a complete health and fitness ecosystem including smart bands, smartwatches, sports earphones, and related products such as treadmills, scales, body composition monitors, and athletic footwear and apparel. As of August 27, 2019, cumulative global shipments of ZEPP smart devices had surpassed 100 million units.

Education · Kuai Peilian Launches B2B Product Yundi Classroom

In March, Future Orange Education — parent company of online piano tutoring brand "Kuai Peilian" — officially released Yundi Classroom, a B2B product for the music education industry. The company also announced completion of a new funding round.

Currently, Kuai Peilian has over 400,000 global users and more than 10,000 tutoring teachers. While developing its consumer-facing product, Kuai Peilian identified pain points and needs on the B2B side, launching Yundi Classroom to address them.

Yundi Classroom is a comprehensive professional online music teaching and tutoring platform designed for piano retailers, art institutions, and studio teachers. Leveraging Kuai Peilian's accumulated online capabilities and solutions, it serves traditional music education institutions' digital transformation through a B2B2C model. The platform supports multiple teaching modes and covers piano, guzheng, violin, cello, accordion, erhu, pipa, music theory, and other instruments and courses. Yundi Classroom has already partnered with over 5,000 piano retailers and individual studios across all 34 provincial-level administrative regions, including well-known chains such as Shengshi Yage, Muse Music Art Classroom, and Huale Piano.

Perspective · Chang Chen: Bullish on China's Consumer Market; Demand Recovery Will Drive Supply-Side Evolution

Recently, Gaorong Ventures founding partner Chang Chen sat down with The Beijing News for an in-depth interview on post-pandemic economic development, the consumer market outlook, and the investment opportunities Gaorong continues to favor and deploy in.

In the interview, Chang Chen noted: "China has the world's largest consumer market, and we have every reason to remain confident in the resilience of China's economy over the long term. Consumer demand will gradually recover, driving upgrades and evolution on the supply side." Going forward, consumers will develop more mature consumption attitudes — pursuing value for money, convenience, and healthier lifestyles, among other shifts in mindset that create new opportunities for consumer entrepreneurship.

Additionally, high-tech industries driven by 5G, IoT, big data, and AI will take off against the backdrop of "new infrastructure." In the 2020 primary market, leading companies across sectors will face tremendous opportunities. Enterprises with differentiated value, technology-driven models, and positive unit economics will enjoy greater competitive advantages to seize opportunities for counter-cyclical growth, and will be more likely to win capital's favor.

Research Against COVID-19 · "Tsinghua University Spring Breeze Fund" Receives $1 Million Donation from Alumni Firm Gaorong Ventures for Pandemic Research

On March 10, the "Tsinghua University Spring Breeze Fund" announced a $1 million donation from alumni organization Gaorong Ventures to support pandemic-related scientific research, responding to the Party Central Committee's call and bolstering Tsinghua's research in public health and emergency response systems. This marks the fund's first alumni donation.

According to an official news release from the Tsinghua University Education Foundation, to implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's instructions on COVID-19 scientific research and under the university's unified deployment, the Tsinghua University Education Foundation established the "Spring Breeze Fund" to enhance Tsinghua's COVID-19 research capabilities and improve China's response to major public health emergencies.

"Though battered, our will grows stronger — we vie with heaven and earth for spring's return." Gaorong Ventures founding partner Chang Chen expressed hope to contribute modestly to the research fight against the pandemic, letting science and technological innovation become the most powerful weapons to defeat the virus.

Ronghui · Online Salon Series Focuses on Building Internal Organizational Strength

Facing intensifying external challenges, 2020 is undoubtedly a year for startups to build internal strength. Solidifying strategic core businesses, forging high-performance organizations, and developing positive unit economics are the best moats for entrepreneurial companies.

Recently, Gaorong Ventures partnered with Tsinghua PBCSF's Global Entrepreneurial Leadership Program to deeply explore how startups build internal capabilities, launching the "Building Internal Strength: Entrepreneurial Leadership Battlefield" series of online interactive salons covering organization, growth, and technology dimensions.

Gaorong Ventures investment partner Liu Xinhua shared "Restarting Growth for Startups Under Special Circumstances." Liu Xinhua noted that this "century catastrophe" is indeed painful, but reflecting through an evolutionary lens, human society — like nature — possesses inherent antifragility; what doesn't destroy us ultimately makes us stronger. For entrepreneurs, regardless of current damage, the correct mindset is to emerge from the shock of stress response and explore paths to antifragile growth under the new normal. Combining analysis of the pandemic's global evolution, Liu Xinhua identified growth opportunities for Chinese startups, pointing to the possibility of reconstructing growth value networks post-crisis, and offered practical growth advice for entrepreneurs in the pandemic era.

Gaotu Techedu co-founder Lü Weisheng, in his "Practical Course on Identifying and Deploying Talent," drew on over 17 years of organizational management experience at Gaotu Techedu and New Oriental to share his 16-character creed for team management: "Choose accurately, deploy decisively, manage strictly, treat kindly." Addressing entrepreneurs' pain points in talent identification and deployment, he shared frameworks and methodologies. Lü noted that if perfect candidates are unavailable, the most important criterion is whether they possess "drive." In organizational management, he believes winning battles is the best team-building. For entrepreneurs, what matters most is unwavering goals and conviction — always making decisions facing toward your objectives.