Temu

One of the fastest-growing global e-commerce marketplaces and among the top digital ad spenders worldwide, disrupting retail and advertising markets simultaneously.

Temu is a global e-commerce marketplace launched in September 2022 by PDD Holdings (formerly Pinduoduo), the Chinese technology conglomerate. The platform connects consumers directly with manufacturers and suppliers—primarily based in China—offering deeply discounted products across categories including apparel, electronics, home goods, and beauty. Its business model leverages PDD Holdings' existing supply chain infrastructure to eliminate intermediaries and pass savings to consumers, enabling prices that dramatically undercut traditional retailers and competitors like Amazon and Shein. In the AdTech ecosystem, Temu is significant primarily as one of the largest and most aggressive digital advertising buyers in recent history. Within months of its U.S. launch, Temu became a top spender on Meta (Facebook and Instagram), TikTok, Google, and connected TV platforms, reportedly spending hundreds of millions of dollars quarterly on paid acquisition. Its Super Bowl advertising campaigns in 2023 and 2024 drew widespread attention and drove massive app download surges, making it a case study in performance marketing at scale. Temu's advertising strategy is almost entirely performance-driven, focused on app installs, first-time purchases, and referral/gamification mechanics to drive viral growth. The company's willingness to spend aggressively on customer acquisition—often at a loss per user—has had a measurable impact on digital advertising auction prices, particularly on Meta platforms, affecting CPMs for other advertisers. Temu has expanded to over 50 countries and consistently ranks among the most-downloaded shopping apps globally, making it a major force in both e-commerce and the broader digital advertising market.