Among the companies that ran ads at the Super Bowl, where the estimated cost was about $7 million per 30 seconds, is Temu, an online retailer that many Romanians also buy from. Temu promises extremely low prices as well as products under one euro, which is controversial in the US. Why

Temu is an online shopping app on Google Play since August 2023. It has over 100 million downloads and a rating of 4.8 out of 5. Temu is famous for its inexpensive products: there are also items under one euro, a laptop backpack for less than 5 euros or sneakers for less than 7 euros. Temu has low prices, but the quality sometimes leaves a lot to be desired, and the products in many cases take weeks to arrive.

Temu’s slogan: “Buy like a billionaire.” In this case, it’s Temu, who “spent like a billionaire” on the Super Bowl and through billion-dollar annual marketing budgets.

Temu’s parent company is Pinduoduo, a Chinese online shopping platform that launched in 2015 with the “recipe” now applied to Temu: a catalog with millions of products, constant promotions and prices starting at one euro. Shipping is free for many products.

Temu was founded in July 2022 and two months later entered the US market, where it was very successful thanks to aggressive online marketing and low prices.

The business model is based on increasing the number of users as quickly as possible and forcing suppliers to compete on price to offer the lowest prices for the listed products. Temu also recently acquired some of the suppliers of its main retail competitor: Shein.

In the spring of 2023, Temu entered several markets in Europe and continued its expansion in the summer.

This is the second year the theme has been featured in Super Bowl ads, where the prices are huge. The topic is controversial in the US, especially because of its ties to China, and the question of where the data of tens of millions of Americans who have installed its program ends up.

Temu says that data protection is a priority and that it is transparent about its practices related to the processing of customer data.

Temu was also accused of violating a US ban on products from China’s Xinjiang province, imposed after a large amount of credible information about forced labor in supply chains emerged.

Temu responded that the allegations are baseless and that its standards and practices are no different from other very large companies such as Amazon, eBay and Etsy.

Sources: CNN, CNBC, USA Today

Photo source: Dreamstime.com