Pinduoduo overseas version Temu Japanese users grew by 2.2 million per month, demonstrating a significant trend of rapid progress.
According to a recent report by Nikkei Chinese website, the overseas version of the Chinese e-commerce platform Pinduoduo, which operates low-priced daily necessities, had over 15 million users in Japan in January. This e-commerce has been operating in Japan for about half a year and has reached over 50% of the average of Japan's leading three major e-commerce companies. Since opening service in July 2023, the monthly number of users has increased by 2.2 million.
Pinduoduo, established in September 2015, has created the "myth" in Chinese e-commerce industry in just a few years. Back then the most famous e-commerce platforms in China are Alibaba and JD. It was not until the emergence of Pinduoduo that the tripartite dynamic came into. After several years of high-speed growth, however, impacted by factors such as slowing data traffic and a shrinking market, Pinduoduo's development pace has slowed down. Therefore, exploring new markets appeared to be the preferred strategy. In August 2022, media reported that Pinduoduo was preparing for its overseas business. At that time, there were strong cross-border e-commerce players in China, the market reacted to the company’s going global move with a mix of expectations and doubts. Nevertheless, Temu managed to demonstrate to the outside world its strength. In September 2022, Pinduoduo's cross-border e-commerce platform Temu was officially launched overseas, with its first stop targeting the North American market. In just one week of launch, it entered the 14th place in the US shopping app market.
In July 23, Temu was launched in Japan. Temu attaches great importance to the Japanese market and rolls out an extreme low price strategy. It provides three types of services: free shipping for orders, quick resolution of delivery issues, and free returns within 90 days. According to Data.ai data, as of November 2023, Temu dominated the iOS and Google Play shopping app downloads in Japan for 101 and 124 days, respectively. In just 121 days, it reached 4 million downloads in Japan. In comparison, Japanese e-commerce platform Mercari spent 427 days and Amazon 660 days to achieve the same result. From the perspective of app store ratings, Japanese consumers are generally satisfied when using Temu. As of January 2024, Temu's overall rating on the App Store was 4.2, with 20400 reviews; On Google Play, the overall score was 4.6, with 2.29 million user comments and reviews.
Along with the rapid development of overseas markets, there is also Temu's financial report data. According to Pinduoduo's financial report, its revenue in the second quarter of 2023 increased by 66.3% year-on-year to 52.2 billion yuan. As of the third quarter, commission income increased from the second quarter to 29.2 billion yuan, achieving a doubling growth in a single quarter. Analysis suggests that the growth in trading service revenue is mainly related to the rapid improvement of Temu's performance. Nowadays, Temu is rapidly advancing in overseas markets such as Japan and the United States, and may bring more surprises to the market in the future.