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PDD’s Temu budget e-commerce app said to enter UK as it ramps up competition with Shein, TikTok in accelerated expansion

  • PDD Holdings subsidiary Temu reportedly plans a UK launch after opening in Australia and New Zealand, as it rapidly expands across the Anglosphere
  • Temu is competing with Shein to become the next big success story for a China-founded app overseas after ByteDance’s TikTok

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PDD’s Temu quickly climbed to become Australia’s 10th most downloaded shopping app on Apple’s iOS a day after launching in the market. Photo: Shutterstock
Coco Fengin Beijing

PDD Holdings subsidiary Temu, the Boston-based budget shopping app, is said to launch in the UK just weeks after entering Australia and New Zealand, bringing the number of markets in which it operates to five, according to local media reports on Monday.

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As part of the official launch planned for March 25, Temu will exempt merchants on the platform from commissions and deposit fees, according to Chinese media All Weather TMT.

The company is currently looking for senior legal counsel based in Dublin, Ireland – the top city for European headquarters owing to favourable tax policies – with “experience with both US and EU privacy laws, regulations, and standards” and “deep understanding of UK/EU laws”, according to job postings on LinkedIn.

Neither Temu nor PDD immediately responded to requests for comment on Monday.

Temu has accelerated the pace of its expansion into new markets since finding some early success in the US, where it launched in September and ran a Super Bowl ad in February.
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