Temu parent spent close to $2bn on Meta in 2023: reports

Reports from within the social media company indicate that the Chinese-founded e-commerce site Temu spent close to $2 billion with Meta through parent company PDD Holdings. 

Why Temu’s marketing spend matters

Temu has exploded into Western consumers’ shopping diets but not without extensive marketing muscle, combined with a reputation for incredibly aggressive pricing, a new report in the Wall Street Journal finds, with some analysts estimating that for every order the site is spending (or losing $7). 

Such heavy quantities of spending, even on big platforms, are now important for everyone involved and would be a huge hit should Temu turn off the taps. 

What’s going on

• People familiar with the matter tell the WSJ that PDD spent close to $2 billion on Meta platforms alone. 
• The levels have been so surprisingly large that Meta employees have allegedly joked that Temu should be thanked with a gift card. 
• This echoes data coming from Meta results, which showed in early February that revenue from China doubled over the course of 2023 to reach $13.69bn.

Market-wide impact

The news follows Temu’s vocal debut at this year’s Super Bowl, a sign of the firm’s willingness to spend heavily. 

Rivals, like the maker-focussed Etsy, have complained that the spending from Temu and fast-fashion Shein has started to increase the cost of advertising. 

Both sites are increasingly favoured by western Gen-Z consumers, according to some studies. 

Sourced from the Wall Street Journal, WARC