Chinaโ€™s Pinduoduo Reports Theft Worth Millions of Yuan โ€“ Caixin Global

What happened: Hackers have exploited a loophole in social e-commerce giant Pinduoduoโ€™s platform allowing them to steal around RMB 10 million ($1.5 million) in online discount vouchers. The company said it has since fixed the bug reported the incident to the police. Users found that they were able to apply a free RMB 100 voucher to any product on the companyโ€™s platform. Large amounts of coupons were redeemed within the space of a few hours.

Why itโ€™s important: The incident marks the second time in the past three months a technical problem has been found on the e-commerce giantโ€™s platform. In November, the company had its app temporarily removed from Appleโ€™s China App Store as a result of a bug. The company didnโ€™t provide any further details. Following the recent incident, Pinduoduo denied any systematic security loopholes, saying that the collective exploited a loophole in its operating rules, though it didnโ€™t elaborate.

Christopher Udemans is TechNode's former Shanghai-based data and graphics reporter. He covered Chinese artificial intelligence, mobility, cleantech, and cybersecurity.

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