Temu (marketplace)

Temu (marketplace)
Temu is an online marketplace operated by the Chinese e-commerce company PDD Holdings Inc. and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, US. It offers heavily discounted goods, which are mostly shipped to consumers directly from China.
History and business model
Temu is owned and operated by the Chinese-based and Cayman Islands registered company PDD Holdings, which also owns Pinduoduo, a popular online commerce platform in China. The platform allows China-based vendors to sell and ship directly to customers without having to rely on intermediate distributors in the destination country, thus increasing affordability for any buyers. Pinduoduo business models also aim to enlarge customer reaches by voluntarily lowering its profit margins on delivery and sellers' end. Temu offers free goods to some users who successfully encourage new users via affiliate codes, social media, and gamification. Online purchases on Temu can be made using an Internet browser or through a dedicated mobile app.
Temu uses online advertising campaigns on Facebook and Instagram. According to Sarah Perez writing for TechCrunch, "These ads appear to be working to boost Temu's installs. But dig into the app's reviews and you'll find similar complaints to Wish, including scammy listings, damaged and delayed deliveries, incorrect orders and lack of customer service." According to Politico, "Apple said the company previously violated the company's mandatory privacy rules and misled people about how it uses their data." Temu apologized and corrected their mistakes afterwards. According to Andrew Chow writing for Time, Temu is also starting to develop a reputation for undelivered packages and unresponsive customer service.
The Temu platform first went live in the United States in September 2022. In late 2022, the Temu app was the most frequently downloaded app in the United States. In February 2023, Temu launched in Canada. That same month, the company aired a Super Bowl ad. In March 2023, Temu launched in Australia and New Zealand. In the following month, Temu was launched in France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK. It was also the most downloaded app on the Google Play Store in Belgium, Portugal, Ireland and Sweden, according to Similarweb.
Shein lawsuits
In December 2022, Temu was sued by rival company Shein, alleging that Temu had enlisted online influencers "to make false and deceptive statements" about Shein to promote its own goods. Temu later sued Shein in July 2023, alleging that Shein had "engaged in a campaign of threats, intimidation, false assertions of infringement, and attempts to impose baseless punitive fines" on clothing manufacturers thought to be working with Temu. On 31 July 2023, Shein won a temporary restraining order against Temu in a different case, alleging that the company used Shein's copyrighted images in product listings. Later in August, Shein sought an injunction against Temu, filed in London's High Court, alleging the company had "identified thousands of instances" where Temu's sellers copied its listing photos. Shein requested all violating posts be taken down and at least £100,000 in damages.
In October 2023, the companies requested that their respective legal cases against each other be dismissed "without prejudice" in the United States (Shein violating U.S. antitrust law, Temu enlisting online influencers to make false and deceptive statements). Neither Shein nor Temu commented on why they dropped their complaints or if a settlement had been made.
United States government reaction
In May 2023, the United States–China Economic and Security Review Commission raised concerns about risks to users' personal data on Temu after Pinduoduo, its sister app in China, was suspended from Google Play because some of its versions, not available on Google's app store, were found to contain malware. Two days after releasing an update to remove the exploits, Pinduoduo disbanded the team of engineers and product managers who had developed them. According to a CNN source, most of the team was transferred to Temu, working in various departments, but a core group of engineers remained at Pinduoduo.
On 17 May 2023, Greg Gianforte, the governor of the US state of Montana banned Temu on government devices state-wide, along with ByteDance applications (including TikTok), WeChat, and Telegram.
In June 2023, the United States House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party stated that Temu does not maintain "even the façade of a meaningful compliance program" with the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act to keep goods made by forced labor off its platform.
See also
List of online marketplaces
References
External links
Chinese brands
Internet properties established in 2022
Online marketplaces
Online marketplaces of the United States
2022 establishments in Massachusetts
2022 establishments in the United States
Companies based in Boston