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Temu entered the U.S. market in 2022 and has since been growing at a breathtaking pace. Anyone who had not heard of the platform before certainly knew of it after its Super Bowl ads.
The fact that Temu could place its ads during the most anticipated sports event in the US, an endeavor that must have cost millions, speaks volumes about the platform’s growth.
The Chinese e-commerce platform has a tagline, “Shop like a billionaire,” yet sells products that are affordable for everyone. It was the most downloaded app on the U.S. App Store in 2024 for the second consecutive year, overtaking TikTok.
The app has over 483 million downloads globally.
In less than two years since its debut, Temu has achieved a level of consumer awareness that rivals platforms like Amazon, which have been building their presence for decades.
But how did the e-commerce company become so popular? Techopedia finds out.
Key Takeaways
- Temu’s rapid growth, including over 483 million downloads, is fueled by affordable products, aggressive marketing, and a gamified shopping experience.
- The platform’s success is backed by PDD Holdings, which also owns Pinduoduo, a dominant Chinese e-commerce company.
- Temu’s unique approach encourages impulse buying with random, low-cost items and interactive features, boosting user engagement.
- Despite its success, Temu faces regulatory challenges, including concerns over forced labor in its supply chain and scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers.
Temu’s Parent Company Has Mastered E-Commerce
Temu is owned by PDD Holdings, the same company behind Pinduoduo. In China, pretty much everyone shops on Pinduoduo, buying everything from speakers to t-shirts and socks.
The company regularly swaps places with Alibaba as the most valuable Chinese firm listed on the U.S. stock exchange. As of January 2025, it’s worth just under $150 billion.
With the Chinese consumer market firmly captivated, PDD Holdings expanded overseas with Temu, using the same model that ensured its earlier success. The formula mirrors that of other Chinese companies that have scaled globally.
Take ByteDance as an example. It launched apps like Douyin and Jianying in China, and when they became extremely popular, they were brought to international markets. Douyin became TikTok, and Jianying became CapCut, both of which have surpassed a billion downloads worldwide.
After making its U.S. debut in 2022, Temu expanded to Australia and New Zealand in March 2023. A month later, it launched in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and the UK.
The company kept growing and eventually entered the Latin American market. By January, it had officially launched in South Africa, making it the 49th country since its launch in September 2022. As of the first quarter of 2024, Temu had an impressive 167 million monthly active users worldwide.
Why Is Temu So Popular?
To understand the reason behind Temu’s popularity, you need to consider two things. People love shopping, and they love it even more when things are cheap.
Every e-commerce platform uses targeted advertising. They collect data on what you search for and show you ads for those items. Temu takes a different approach. It shows you random, inexpensive items that are hard to resist.
When you open Amazon, you usually have a clear goal in mind. For example, if your dog’s food runs out, you’ll open the app to order something like Pedigree. Maybe sometimes you also end up buying a handheld mini fan alongside it.
Temu, on the other hand, encourages impulse purchases by highlighting how easy and affordable it is to satisfy every little curiosity. It delivers cheap goods while fueling our desire for novelty. If a product doesn’t meet expectations, it’s not a big deal. We crave stimulation – not just from the items we buy but from the very act of shopping itself.
Another reason why the platform is so popular is the gamified interface. Temu has mastered the gamification of shopping, implementing spinning wheels, countdown timers, and progressive rewards that mirror successful mobile gaming strategies.
Windy Pierre, eCommerce Growth Marketer at eCommerce Manager Dot Co, told Techopedia:
“Unlike some platforms, Temu invests heavily in social discovery features, incentivizing user engagement and referrals, which I’ve seen lift conversion rates by 10–15%.”
Greg Zakowicz, a senior e-commerce expert at Omnisend, told Techopedia:
“By offering interactive games with the ability to win discounts, Temu can increase customers’ time on their site in exchange for discounts. The more time shoppers spend on a site, the more likely they will purchase.”
Experts also attribute Temu’s popularity to its aggressive advertising and reliance on China’s vast manufacturing ecosystem.
“Temu’s marketing efforts, such as high-profile Superbowl ads, have successfully positioned it as a platform where luxury can be affordable.
“Its use of social media platforms like TikTok and YouTube, as well as influencer and micro-influencer strategies, has been especially effective for younger audiences,” says Zakowicz.
Will Temu End Up Facing the Same Issues as TikTok?
A lot of Chinese companies that blew up in the U.S. have faced regulatory scrutiny, so will Temu run into the same problems? TikTok’s parent company is constantly being pushed by the U.S. government to either sell off its stake in the app by January 19, 2025 or risk a ban.
Network gear maker TP-Link is also reportedly under investigation for being a national security threat. And, of course, there’s the whole Huawei and ZTE ban situation.
Temu is already facing some challenges in the US. A Congressional report published in June 2023 slammed the platform, with lawmakers accusing it of not even trying to maintain “the façade of a meaningful compliance program” to stop goods made with forced labor from being sold on its site.
“American consumers should know that there is an extremely high risk that Temu’s supply chains are contaminated with forced labor,” the report said.
Earlier this year, 11 Republican lawmakers sent a letter to the CEOs of CBS, which is airing the Super Bowl, and parent company Paramount, urging them not to run Temu ads.
The Bottom Line
The cheap goods, aggressive marketing, and gamified interface have helped Temu become one of the most popular e-commerce platforms. It sells inexpensive products manufactured in China directly to American consumers, cutting out the middlemen.
However, this model may not be sustainable, especially with the growing anti-China policies in the U.S. and other countries.
