Скачать или смотреть Let's Talk Marketplace: How Temu works – and why it won’t go away

The recording has been edited for brevity.

In June 2024, ChinaTalk’s Ed Sander was a guest on the Let’s Talk Marketplace podcast.

From the host Valerie:

Can Temu be demystified?
The bad boy of the marketplace industry, who uses rock-bottom prices to siphon off masses of customers from European retailers and brands? Yes, it’s possible! However, not everyone will like the result…

Because we are of the opinion that ostrich policy is useless, we have brought Ed Sander (艾德) onto our podcast. I met him in Zurich at the Score, where he gave a remarkable talk about Temu. Ed is a China expert (even though he says the term should be used with great caution!), has lived in China and has been analyzing the online retail market in China for many years, for example for Tech Buzz China. Together with his wife Jessica Sun (孙慧), he runs ChinaTalk, a learning platform for the Chinese language and culture, and offers study trips to China for retailers. Together with Ingrid Lommer and me, he takes a look behind the scenes of Temu and brings many exciting facts to the table with clear words. For example, the goodies Temu uses to attract new customers and then gradually collect them.

In episode 69 of our podcast “Let’s talk Marketplace”, he explains in detail
– why Temu is not actually a marketplace at all
– how Temu’s business model works at the moment
– why Temu can change its business model again and again and very quickly
– why European customers are jumping on Temu
– and what European retailers can do to counter this

Ed is certain that Temu will continue to gain massive influence: Firstly, because Pinduoduo, the parent company behind Temu, is extremely successful and can therefore pump huge amounts of money into Temu. Secondly, because Temu consistently caters to consumer habits in Europe – cheap goods create almost irresistible incentives to buy.