Pinduoduo Faces Scrutiny As Employee Dies Working Past Midnight

Pinduduo Inc PDD is under scrutiny after an employee died after working past midnight last week, Bloomberg reported Monday.

What Happened: The company faced criticism online after it disclosed the death of the employee on Monday, according to Bloomberg.

A hashtag related to the incident reportedly drew 150 million views on Sina Weibo, a service similar to Twitter Inc’s TWTR platform run by Sina Corporation SINA.

Why It Matters: The grueling schedule is locally known as 996 — from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week, not including overtime — has been endorsed by tech leaders in China such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd BABA founder Jack Ma and JD.com, Inc JD CEO Richard Liu, noted Bloomberg.

The backlash against Pinduduo comes at a time when China is stepping up regulation of its tech companies.

See Also: Alibaba Regulatory Woes A 'Nirvana Set Up' For FAANG Stocks, Says Analyst

Price Action: Pinduoduo shares closed 0.8% lower at $177.67 on Thursday and gained 1.14% at $179.70 in the after-hours session.

Posted In: NewsEventsTechMediaBloombergChinae-commerce
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