China's Pinduoduo quarterly revenue more than doubles

March 17 (Reuters) - Chinese e-commerce firm Pinduoduo Inc PDD.O reported a 146% surge in quarterly revenue on Wednesday, thanks to online shoppers buying everything from groceries to luxury products from the comfort of their homes.

Pinduoduo allows buyers to avail greater discounts when shopping with more number of people - something that seems to have attracted consumers who have less spendable income due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Shanghai-based company's annual active users jumped during the pandemic-hit year, helping Pinduoduo overtake larger rival Alibaba Group BABA.N to become China's largest e-commerce platform by consumers.

Pinduoduo reported 788.4 million active buyers in 2020, while Alibaba had recorded 779 million active buyers during the same period.

Total revenues rose to 26.55 billion yuan ($4.08 billion) in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, topping analysts' estimates of 19.22 billion yuan, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Net loss narrowed to 1.38 billion yuan from 1.75 billion yuan a year earlier.

($1 = 6.5027 Chinese yuan renminbi)

(Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru and Sophie Yu in Beijing; Editing by Amy Caren Daniel)

((Eva.Mathews@thomsonreuters.com;))