Budget Shopping App Temu Launches In Europe

Fast-growing Chinese budget shopping app Temu has launched in the UK and five other European countries, amidst rapid international expansion.

The platform also launched in the France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain on Monday, countries where it is now holding opening sales.

Temu is the international sister site of parent company PDD’s Pinduoduo that operates in China.

The app has topped US app download rankings since January, with a 45 percent surge in downloads and 20 percent growth in its daily active user base on the day it ran Super Bowl ads in February, according to Sensor Tower.

International growth

Temu now operates in a total of 10 countries after holding its US launch only last September.

Earlier this year it launched in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Competitor Shein, another China-linked budget shopping app, accounted for 50 percent of all fast-fashion sales in the US as of November, well ahead of brands such as H&M with 16 percent and Zara with 13 percent, according to Bloomberg Second Measure.

While Shein was founded in China it is now headquartered in Singapore, but both it and Temu primarily source their products from China and ship directly from there to US consumers.

China-owned short-video app TikTok has also invested heavily in e-commerce.

Official concern

Along with TikTok, the shopping apps are coming under growig scrutiny from the US government over alleged data security concerns.

US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC), a US Congress advisory group, in a report earlier this month singled out Shein and Temu for criticism over their collection of user data and other concerns.