On December 12th, the media cited data from overseas research company Apptopia, stating that the average daily spending time of active users on TEMU, a cross-border e-commerce platform under Pinduoduo, has continued to grow, reaching 22 minutes in October, which is more than twice that of its overseas competitors such as Amazon and AliExpress.
According to data, in the second quarter of 2023, users spent an average of 18 minutes per day on the TEMU application. In comparison, Amazon and Alibaba's cross-border e-commerce AliExpress spent 10 minutes and 11 minutes respectively. In addition, the report states that the time spent on TEMU among young users is 19 minutes, which is higher than the average level.
To some extent, TEMU's main way of attracting users to stay on the site is still through low prices, similar to a transformation of the model of inviting friends to "cut a knife" on Pinduoduo. Media reports suggest that TEMU encourages users to win shopping rewards by playing games, such as winning coupons through roulette. "If you buy something within 10 minutes, the value of the coupon will increase.".
Since TEMU was launched overseas in 2022, various data have been showing a frenzy. In the second quarter of 2023, TEMU made it to the top ten global downloads for the first time, with TikTok ranking first. In the United States, TEMU is already one of the most popular apps, becoming the most downloaded shopping app in less than four months of its launch, and expanding its popularity with this year's Super Bowl advertisements.
In recent times, with more and more news of online fashion giant SHEIN seeking listing on the US stock market, TEMU and SHEIN, both cross-border e-commerce companies, are being compared more and more.
According to a previous report by LatePost, TEMU estimates that it will complete a GMV of $14 billion for the entire year of 2023, while SHEIN's GMV last year was $29 billion. Specifically in the United States, TEMU surpassed SHEIN in sales in May 2023. However, it should be pointed out that TEMU is a full category platform sales model, and although SHEIN is also expanding its categories and models, it is still mainly self operated fashion apparel products.
Previously, on November 28th, Pinduoduo released its performance report for the third quarter of 2023 as of September 30th. Among the total quarterly revenue of 68.84 billion yuan, transaction service revenue was 29.152 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 315.15%. The significant growth in transaction service revenue is mainly due to the super rapid growth of overseas business TEMU in the past year. But at the same time, its overall gross profit margin has also decreased.
Another comparative dimension is that TEMU is still in a loss making investment period, but SHEIN, which has been developing for over a decade, has achieved stable profits and established sufficient barriers to supply in the clothing industry belt near Guangzhou. SHEIN still has a strong advantage in the fashion industry alone.
Not long ago, the media reported multiple times that SHEIN has secretly traded on the US stock market and is seeking a market value of $90 billion. Its detailed financial situation is also about to enter the public eye. The strong development of TEMU overseas is also seen as having the possibility of rebuilding a Pinduoduo. Currently, TEMU is also regarded as the "third entrepreneurship" after Duoduo Maicai, and is fully invested in TEMU internally.
With the explosive growth of TEMU users, in the visible future, TEMU will not only face competition from Chinese peers such as SHEIN, AliExpress, and TikTok in the United States, but also counterattacks from local e-commerce giants such as Amazon and offline low-cost retailers.