By Sam GruetBusiness and expertise reporter58 minutes agoImage supply, Getty ImagesImage caption, It is estimated that 152 million People use Temu each monthA report 123 million People tuned into this 12 months’s Tremendous Bowl. However in addition to getting the nation’s largest sporting occasion, a blockbuster halftime efficiency and a number of other digital camera cutaways of Taylor Swift within the crowd, additionally they bought six 30-second commercials for Temu – a Chinese language-owned e-commerce firm.The buying big has been criticised by politicians within the UK and US – a US authorities investigation discovering an “extraordinarily excessive danger” that merchandise offered on Temu might have been made with pressured labour.Temu says it “strictly prohibits” using pressured, penal, or youngster labour by all its retailers.The corporate, which sells all the things from garments to electronics and furnishings, first launched within the US in 2022 and later within the UK and the remainder of the world.Since then, it has constantly topped international app obtain charts, with slightly below 152 million People utilizing it each month, in line with information gathered by analyst SimilarWeb.It is “Amazon on steroids,” says retail analyst Neil Saunders, and with the tagline “store like a billionaire” it has exploded in reputation, transport to 49 international locations worldwide.Picture caption, Temu spent near $1.7bn on advertisements in 2023, in line with SimilarWebA typical 30-second Tremendous Bowl business prices round $7m (£5.5m), throughout this 12 months’s occasion Temu had six of them. “It is some huge cash for a really, brief business,” Mr Saunders says. “However it’s seen by an unlimited variety of folks and we all know that after that business Temu’s downloads spiked,” he provides. SimilarWeb information suggests particular person guests to the platform worldwide have been up by practically 1 / 4 on the day of the Tremendous Bowl in contrast with the earlier Sunday, with 8.2 million folks looking the web site and app. In the identical interval, Amazon and Ebay’s guests have been down by 5% and a couple of% respectively. “They’ve additionally spent some huge cash on micro-marketing, persuading influencers to push merchandise and to recommend shopping for issues on the platform through social channels like TikTok and YouTube,” says Mr Saunders. These influencers sometimes have fewer than 10,000 followers in line with Ines Durand, an e-commerce professional at SimilarWeb.”Micro-influencers have robust communities, so their endorsement means a robust belief in direction of these merchandise,” she explains.Temu is owned by Chinese language big Pinduoduo – “a monster in Chinese language e-commerce,” in line with Shaun Rein, founding father of the China Market Analysis Group. “All through China, everybody buys merchandise on Pinduo, from audio system to t-shirts or socks,” he says. The corporate constantly trades locations with rival Alibaba for the highest spot of most useful Chinese language agency listed on a US inventory change. Its present value sits at slightly below $150bn (£117bn).With the Chinese language client market underneath its spell, Pinduoduo expanded abroad with Temu, utilizing the identical mannequin that had ensured its earlier success. In keeping with Mr Rein, who is predicated in Shanghai, the agency has turn into an ideal supply of satisfaction and patriotism.”They’re proud that Chinese language firms can slay the e-commerce dragons from the US like Amazon,” he provides. A fast scroll via the Temu app or web site will carry up something from steel-toecap trainers to a tool designed to assist the aged and pregnant ladies placed on socks. A menagerie of manufactured items, nearly fully produced in factories in China, Mr Rein explains.”Temu use an incredible, system that depends on, heavy information assortment at scale,” says Ines Durand.”They gather information on client developments, essentially the most searched and clicked merchandise, which they offer to particular person producers.”Ms Durand says that whereas Amazon sells this information to producers at a premium, Temu provides it to producers freed from cost – data they use to “take a look at the market” with a comparatively small variety of merchandise. The platform usually makes use of AI-generated photos to maintain updated with the very newest developments, so the product on sale could not even exist but, in line with Ms Durand. Then they’re shipped by air.”It means merchandise do not have to be saved. They need not go to warehouses as soon as it is shipped by aeroplane, you go straight to the shopper,” says Ines Durand. Picture supply, Getty ImagesImage caption, Temu ships straight from factories in China to the customerA third of parcels that got here into the US final 12 months underneath a transport loophole generally known as the de minimis threshold have been from Temu and competitor Shein, in line with a report from US Congress.Many international locations – together with the UK and USA have a de minimis threshold, designed to assist residents to import items.In order Temu’s items are shipped instantly from the manufacturing unit flooring, reducing out the middlemen, they turn into primarily duty-free.Extra regulation could also be on the horizon to shut up transport loopholes, nonetheless, in line with Mickey Diaz, chief working officer at international freight firm Distinctive Logistics. “The UK has already began to have a look at Temu with some scrutiny, together with the sale of weapons which can be in any other case not allowed into the UK, which have been being imported due to these loopholes,” she explains.Temu has been criticised for its provide chains too, with UK and US politicians accusing the e-commerce big of permitting items produced with pressured labour to be offered on its web site. Temu says it “strictly prohibits” using pressured, penal, or youngster labour by all its retailers. It instructed the BBC anybody doing enterprise with it should “adjust to all regulatory requirements and compliance necessities”.”Temu’s retailers, suppliers, and different third events should pay their staff and contractors on time and adjust to all relevant native wage and hours legal guidelines.”Our present requirements and practices are not any totally different from different main e-commerce platforms trusted by shoppers, and allegations on this regard are utterly ungrounded,” a spokesperson added. Regardless of the controversy, analysts count on additional enlargement for Temu.”We’ll in all probability see groups begin to spherical out its supply extra, maybe pushing into some barely larger priced merchandise” predicts retail analyst Neil Saunders.In keeping with Shaun Reid, the main target will likely be on grabbing an excellent larger slice of the market.”For the following two to a few years, their technique is simply to develop model consciousness and market share. They do not care about income. “That is precisely what occurred with Pinduoduo when it launched in China. They have been giving extremely low-cost offers simply to seize market share.”