SHANGHAI, March 20 (Reuters) - Low-cost e-commerce giant

PDD Holdings ( PDD ) beat Wall Street estimates for

fourth-quarter revenue on Wednesday, driven by robust user

growth and sales on its global platform Temu.

U.S.-listed shares of the company, which is also home to

Chinese online discount retailer Pinduoduo, rose more than 13%

in premarket trading.

PDD's revenue for the quarter ended Dec. 31 was 88.88

billion yuan ($12.35 billion), topping the 79.23 billion

expected by analysts, LSEG data showed.

The last quarter's year-on-year revenue growth of 123%

follows a 94% third-quarter rise. Both comparable quarters in

2022 were impacted by COVID restrictions in China, which were

only dropped in December of that year.

Temu, which launched in September 2022, is now operating in

51 global markets. Its expansion has been costly however, with

PDD's sales and marketing expenses growing 50% on the year to

26.64 billion yuan.

PDD has gained market share in recent years with highly

competitive pricing in China and overseas as customers favour

affordable or discounted products in uncertain economic times.

Executive director and co-CEO Zhao Jiazhen also said in the

fourth quarter PDD saw "growing demand driven by encouraging

consumer sentiment".

Temu, which sells $4 home decor items and $10 T-shirts in

the U.S. and other major European, Middle Eastern and Asian

markets, has been attracting customers from rivals such as

Dollar Tree ( DLTR ) and other brick-and-mortar retailers.

PDD overtook Alibaba Group Holdings on

Dec. 1 to become the most valuable Chinese e-commerce company by

market capitalisation after Morgan Stanley downgraded Alibaba ( BABA ).

($1 = 7.1987 Chinese yuan renminbi)