Temu: Around The World in 16 Months?

What's common to Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahrain, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Republic of Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Niger, Norway, Oman, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UAE, UK and US?

Easy actually! In each of these 44 countries, Temu ranked No 1. Among Shopping Apps. On Apple App Store. As of Jan 1, 2024.

Now the trick question.

Of the above 44, what's special about Bahrain, Belgium, Chile, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Jordan, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and UAE?

Again, simple really! These are the 27 countries where Temu also happened to rank No 1 on Google Play Store. Among Shopping Apps. As of Jan 1, 2024. In usage. Not just in downloads.

All this barely 16 months after its Sep 2022 US launch!

Grateful, as always, to Similarweb for the raw rankings data. By individual country. Source: https://www.similarweb.com/top-apps/apple/shopping/.

In all, users in 118 countries have downloaded Temu. Either from Apple App Store or from Google Play Store. So far.

Even though its checkout page lists 36 countries only. Everywhere else, buyers need to use US-based third-party freight forwarders. To deliver to their doorstep. That hasn't stopped them though. From getting hooked on to Temu.

Even though Temu's available in just 10 languages. English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Arabic and Turkish.

By comparison, Amazon Translate supports as many as 75 languages.

Temu. The ecommerce marketplace. That's stormed the online world.

Selling an endless range. From clothing, shoes and accessories. To jewellery, cosmetics and personal care. Kitchen appliances. Craft supplies. Home entertainment. Electronics. Sports. Musical instruments. And a lot more ...

Many of which are cheaper than on Amazon. Or not even available there.

Free standard shipping. On almost all orders. 90-day free returns. Shop now, pay later.

Viral shopping games. Fishland. Farmland. Redeem cash. Lucky flip. Free gifts.

Coupon bundles. Lightning deals. Blowout sale. 72-hour bestsellers. Clearance. Back to school.

Affiliate program. Influencer program.

Temu's tagline? "Shop like a billionaire."

Bet you didn't know you needed a pack of 3 remote-controlled wireless lights. Until you saw they were only USD 8.97 on Temu. And almost sold out!

Or a retractable, heavy-duty box-cutter knife. Until its USD 3.98 price tag woke you up. A New Year deal.

Or even a dust-proof foldable storage bin. With lid. At USD 5.98, you couldn't resist. With only 3 left. In stock.

Or an infrared digital thermometer. No touch. With fever alarm. And instant reading. At USD 3.99 only, a best-seller. Batteries not included.

No, Temu didn't target price-conscious buyers in developing countries. That would've been a "red ocean" strategy.

Instead they went after value-for-money consumers in the developed world.

Had Amazon, eBay and Walmart been underserving this demographic? All along? Looks like it.

Why else the high worldwide Google keyword search volume for "Temu"? Growing from 691000 in Sep 2022? All the way to 30.4 mill in Dec 2023? Thanks to Exploding Topics for this mind-boggling data point. Source: https://explodingtopics.com/topic/temu.

Along the way, Temu became the youngest-ever US Super Bowl advertiser. In Feb 2023.

Is Temu a passing phenomenon? Destined to be overtaken by the next such direct-shipping prodigy from China?

Remember Temu was born of Pinduoduo Holdings. The NASDAQ-listed platform that surpassed Alibaba in market cap. In Dec 2023.

Or will Temu keep growing its monthly active users, conversion rate, average revenue per user, retention rate, customer lifetime value etc? For the foreseable future?

And maintain a low churn rate? Reduce its customer acquisition cost? Over time?

Have your say. In the comments below.

Until next time! :)