Wish’s deep discount sale to Singapore’s Qoo10 ramps up competition for Temu and Shein

Hours
after
Super
Bowl
viewers
were
inundated
with

ads
from
discount
retailer
Temu,
an
online
dollar
store
that
used
to
have
similar
buzz
was
acquired
at
a
price
that
shows
the
difficulty
of
sustaining
growth
in
e-commerce.

Wish,
which
was
valued
at
$14
billion
at
the
time
of
its

IPO
in
2020,

said
Monday
that
it’s
being
acquired
by
Singapore’s
Qoo10
for
$173
million
in
cash,
99%
below
its
peak
price.

Founded
in
2010
and
based
in
San
Francisco,
Wish
made
a
name
for
itself
with
ultracheap
goods

primarily
sold
by
Chinese
manufacturers.
Co-founder
Peter
Szulczewski
bet
shoppers
would
be
willing
to
accept
weeks-long
delivery
times
in
exchange
for
bargain
basement
prices.

The
Temu
marketing
blitz,
which
blanketed
Facebook
and
Instagram
well
before
Sunday’s
Super
Bowl,
is
also
familiar
to
anyone
who
followed
Wish.
The
company
spent
heavily
on
Facebook’s
platforms
to
attract
shoppers,
and
struck
a
deal
to
put
its
logo
on
Los
Angeles
Lakers
jerseys.

But
the
company
was
bleeding
cash,
and
last
November,
after
ousting
Szulczewski
as
its
CEO,

said
it
was
exploring
strategic
alternatives.

Qoo10
will
now
be
taking
on
Temu
and
Shein,
which
both
originated
in
China
and
still
have
strong
ties
to
the
world’s
second-biggest
economy.
TikTok,
owned
by
China’s
ByteDance,
also
launched
an
online
marketplace
in
the
U.S.
last
year.
The
companies
have
shown
they’re
willing
to
spend
heavily
to
attract
shoppers,
as
well
as
lose
money
on
sales
of
cheap
products
by
offering
free
shipping
and
hefty
discounts.

Their
ad
spend
provided
a
big
boost
to
Meta’s

top
line,
but
it’s
hurt
retailers
like
handmade
goods
purveyor
Etsy,
which

acknowledged
last
year
that
Temu
and
Shein
are
“taking
a
little
bit
of
share
from
everyone.”

During
and
shortly
after
the
Super
Bowl,
Temu

ran
a
handful
of

“shop
like
a
billionaire”
ads
and
touted
$15
million
in
giveaways.
For
the
second
year
in
a
row,
brands

shelled
out
roughly
$7
million
for
30
seconds
of
ad
time
during
the
game.

Temu
is
estimated
to
have
spent
between
$600
million
and
$1.4
billion
on
ads
during
the
first
nine
months
of
2023,
Stifel
analysts
wrote
in
a
note
last
November.
The
firm
projects
Temu
had
an
average
of
70
million
monthly
active
users
over
the
same
stretch
last
year.

Temu,
which
launched
in
late
2022,
has
deep
pockets
thanks
to
its
parent
company
PDD
Holdings.
Shein,
founded
in
2012,
started
aggressively
advertising
on
social
media
in
the
past
couple
years.

Wish’s
new
owner
may
be
joining
the
party
as
the
hype
is
waning.
Analysts
at


Morgan
Stanley
wrote
in
a
note
late
last
month
that
the
number
of
U.S.
households
shopping
on
Temu
continues
to
fall,
while
web
traffic
and
app
usage
data
“also
shows
stalling/moderating
uptake
since
October,
even
through
the
Holiday
period.”

WATCH:

Temu
sees
fewer
new
users
post
Super
Bowl