An e-commerce app focusing on selling cheap goods to overseas consumers, Temu made its foray into Asia through Japan and South Korea in July. In Japan and South Korea, Temu has overtaken Shein by staying at the top of shopping app rankings in those locations for a longer period of time. Temu is backed by Nasdaq-listed Chinese tech giant PDD Holdings, which also owns China-based e-commerce app Pinduoduo. Chinese low-cost retailer Temu is dominating app stores in Japan and South Korea in its category, dethroning rival Shein after its successful expansion in Western markets. The investment firm estimated that Temu, which is owned by PDD Holdings; generates more than $1 billion of [monthly transaction value] and expects “continued growth into second half 2023.” Its rival Shein was estimated to be on track to hit $30 billion in transaction value in 2022. Temu has overtaken Shein in Japan and South Korea by staying at the top of shopping app rankings in those locations for a longer period of time. Since its July launch in Japan to Nov. 2, “Temu has ranked #1 by daily iOS & Google Play shopping app downloads in Japan for 101 days out of 124 days. By comparison, Shein spent just 17 days topping the two app stores in the same period in Japan. Temu was the fastest to reach four million downloads in Japan, taking around 121 days, compared to Shein which took 155 days, according to data.ai. Japanese marketplace Mercari took 427 days and Amazon 660 days, the data showed. 

In just a few weeks, the Chinese ecommerce app rose to the top of app stores and subsequently expanded rapidly across countries such as Australia, New Zealand, France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and the U.K. Temu made its foray into Asia through Japan and South Korea in July. It then entered the Philippines on Aug. 26 before launching in Malaysia on Sept. 8. The platform has been expanding rapidly since its launch by leveraging its parent company’s strength in supply chain and marketing.