“Alibaba should adapt to the success of Temu”

Temu is China’s new star: that much is clear after a record quarter for parent company PDD. After nearly doubling its sales, the group is even receiving praise from Alibaba founder Jack Ma: he says ‘his’ company should take note of Temu’s example.

E-commerce beacons on the move

PDD has exceeded expectations with a stunning third quarter: the company behind the Temu app saw sales rise 94 % to 68.84 billion yuan (just under nine billion euros), mainly thanks to successes outside of China. Net profit for ordinary shareholders reached 15.54 billion yuan, although PDD does not expect the flagship Temu to be profitable for around three years.

Temu was only launched in September last year, but is already the most downloaded retail app in the United States and is now available in 48 countries. For the whole year, analysts are expecting sales of more than 15 billion euros, according to Reuters. On its domestic Chinese market, PDD is also growing much faster than its rivals Alibaba and JD.com. Temu has made its mark by offering huge discounts on Singles’ Day and Black Friday.

For Ma, the quarterly figures were reason enough to make a one-off intervention with his company (the entrepreneur had stepped aside under political pressure). Ma congratulated PDD and said in a message to Alibaba employees that the company needed to adapt.