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Hello readers,
I’m not a fan of fast fashion. According to the UN Environment Programme, the industry is the second-largest consumer of water and accounts for between 2% and 8% of global carbon emissions.
On top of the environmental concerns, I take issue with the consumer motivations that have driven the industry to its sky-high revenue numbers. Do we really need that many clothes? Would it kill us to wear the same top multiple times?
It reminds me of that famous quote: “We buy things we don’t need with money we don’t have to impress people we don’t like.”
But this is just one man’s rant against a billion-dollar industry. Today’s premium article explores the rapid rise of Temu, the latest challenger to Shein’s crown.
Today we look at:
- How top Shein rival Temu rose to prominence
- Lenskart securing US$500 million and planning to expand in India
- Other newsy highlights such as Stripe’s latest funding and Baidu’s answer to GPT-4
Premium summary
The new kid in fast fashion town
Image credit: Timmy Loen
If you give the people what they want, they’ll lap it up. And it looks like Temu’s really good at doing that, seeing as how it saw 10.8 million downloads between December 2022 and March 2023, making it the most downloaded free app in the US.
All this from a company that was “only an idea in a Pinduoduo management meeting in January last year.”
- Not only downloads: Temu’s monthly gross merchandise volume surged from US$3 million in September 2022 to US$192 million in January 2023.
- Friends in high places: The platform has been able to leverage on the established global network of its sister firm, Pinduoduo, which lets it offer a variety of products at affordable prices throughout the year.
- Of course, money is being burned: Such rapid expansion comes at high costs. PDD Holdings CEO and chairman Chen Lei has acknowledged that Temu’s global expansion “will be full of challenges,” with the firm reportedly expecting losses during its first year of operations to reach US$720 million.
Read more: Why SEA should watch out for Shein’s top rival Temu
I have perfect eyesight but would wear a pair of glasses if you gave me US$500 million
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