With more than 15 million users, Temu is "surging" in another market

In recent years, more and more Chinese companies have seen the importance of the Southeast Asian market.

Japan is an important country in Southeast Asia and one of the top five e-commerce markets in the world. Some institutions predict that by 2027, the scale of Japan's e-commerce market is expected to reach US$223.49 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of 9.8%.

Such a market naturally attracted the attention of many e-commerce platforms, and Temu was no exception. At the end of July last year, Temu was officially launched in Japan. Since the official launch of the service, the number of Temu users in Japan has been increasing.

By January this year, its user base had reached 15.5 million, with an average monthly growth of 2.2 million users. This number is 52% higher than the average number of users of the three major Japanese e-commerce platforms, Amazon Japan, Rakuten Market, and Yahoo! Shopping, showing Temu's strong competitiveness here. However, in terms of user numbers, Yahoo still has the upper hand, with about 29.7 million users.

Industry insiders believe that Temu's success stems from its unique business model and precise market positioning . T-shirts for 890 yen each, towels for 584 yen for 15 pieces, and small backpacks for 360 yen, these cheap but high-quality products all attract Japanese consumers.

At the same time, Temu's marketing in Japan also contributed greatly. By providing consumers with coupons worth thousands of yen every day and continuous promotions, Temu not only increased its popularity here, but also enhanced user loyalty and participation.

Judging from the ratings on the app stores, Japanese consumers are generally satisfied with Temu. As of January 23, Temu's overall rating on the App Store reached 4.2 and on Google Play reached 4.6.

Regarding Temu's aggressive development, a senior executive of a Japanese e-commerce platform said that if it continues to expand at this rate, the platform may pose a threat to Amazon. Although Amazon is excellent in delivery speed, Temu's low prices and large-scale discounts are also very attractive to users.

In addition to Temu, SHEIN has also achieved impressive results here. According to data provided by VALUES, the number of SHEIN users in Japan reached 8.39 million in January this year, a year-on-year increase of 2.3 times.

In Japan, SHEIN is popular among young women in their teens and twenties for its cost-effective fashion apparel. Like other e-commerce platforms originating from China, SHEIN has also carried out bold promotional activities here.

In addition, Japanese industry insiders also said that given that TikTok also has a large user base in Japan, if the company's e-commerce business chooses to enter the Japanese market, it is also expected to achieve good results.

Temu

Japan

Number of users