From the article: The malicious versions of the Pinduoduo app were available in third-party markets, which users in China and elsewhere rely on because the offi

From the article: The malicious versions of the Pinduoduo app were available in third-party markets, which users in China and elsewhere rely on because the official Google Play market is off-limits or not easy to access. No malicious versions were found in Play or Apple’s App Store. Last Monday, TechCrunch reported that Pinduoduo was pulled from Play after Google discovered a malicious version of the app available elsewhere. TechCrunch reported the malicious apps available in third-party markets exploited several zero-days, vulnerabilities that are known or exploited before a vendor has a patch available. As far as I know, China is the only country that has 3rd-party Android app markets of that size because Google Play is literally not allowed there. So I don't think this would be a significant story anywhere else in the world.