14 million US dollars pours two 30-second ads, with an average ad cost of 230,000 US dollars per second — at the 57th “Super Bowl” in February of this year, the “US version of Pinduoduo” Temu not only set the highest price in history for this tournament advertisement, but also became the youngest brand to advertise in the “Super Bowl” in history.

According to industry sources, in February next year, Temu may once again appear on the much-anticipated “American Spring Festival Gala” stage...

Relevant sources familiar with the matter pointed out that Temu has promised to buy multiple ad units during the Super Bowl to be held on February 11 next year. The plan would be a huge ad spend for Temu. Temu's parent company is Chinese e-commerce giant Pinduoduo.

The annual “Super Bowl” has long been the most commercially valuable super event in the world. Regarding next year's “Super Bowl” event, a Temu spokesperson has previously stated that the company has discussed the upcoming “Super Bowl” but has not promised any plans.

Next year's “Super Bowl” will be broadcast on CBS (CBS), and the advertising costs for this tournament will probably not be cheaper than this year. Some ad buyers previously revealed that during the 58th “Super Bowl”, the cost of a 30-second advertisement ranged from about 6 million US dollars to a maximum of 7.2 million US dollars.

According to ad buyers, according to industry practice, CBS will also require all Super Bowl advertisers to commit to buying ads for the same period of time on other CBS sports programs. The advertising fee rate for major contests may vary depending on factors such as the time the advertisement is broadcast during the competition and the number of ads purchased by the brand during the competition.

Is there another advertisement for the “brainwashing” god?

In February of this year, Temu's “debut” at the “Super Bowl” can be said to have been a huge success and enabled countless Americans to get to know this cross-border e-commerce platform from across the ocean for the first time.

In the 30-second commercial at the time, a fashionably dressed woman used Temu to keep dressing herself and passers-by, and featured catchy lyrics, which eventually led to the slogan “Shop like a Billionaire” (shop like a billionaire).

Temu's magical advertising song in English is easily reminiscent of the brainwashing song “Pinduoduo, Pinduoduo, Pinduoduo, Pinduoduo, More Free” launched by Pinduoduo in 2017. At the same time, the slogan “Shop like a Billionaire” is not only full of American humor, but also includes Temu's cost performance advantages, as Temu officially said: “Because of the prices we offer, they can shop freely. Because of Temu, 'shopping like a billionaire' is no longer a dream.”

After this “brainwashing” advertisement appeared in the “Super Bowl,” it also quickly sparked a temu craze on the US internet. According to statistics from the business intelligence data agency SensorTower, more than 426,000 people downloaded the Temu app during the Super Bowl weekend, and in the following month, the cumulative number of global downloads of Temu reached 50 million times.

Many people in the cross-border e-commerce industry anticipated at the time that this “Super Bowl” advertising debut might be the first step in marketing the Temu brand. Referring to the “licensing method” of its parent company Pinduoduo, Temu is likely to become a regular on major US programs and social media in the future.

However, the facts of the past half a year have finally proved that Temu has begun the “multi-line attack.” Relevant industry insiders said that in order to attract more customers to visit its shopping platform and build a household name brand, Temu has been spending a lot during the year so far.

According to market information company Sensor Tower, so far this year, 46% of Temu's digital advertising spending has gone to Facebook, 22% to Instagram, and 15% to YouTube.

Sky Canaves, senior analyst at Insider Intelligence, said that the huge investment in the Super Bowl reflects Temu's strategy of using the huge advertising budget derived from Pinduoduo's strong capital to gain popularity in the US and other markets, and ultimately use the won customer base to build a company that is not profitable into a sustainable enterprise.

Etsy CEO Joshua Silverman pointed out in an earnings call with analysts earlier this month that Temu and its competitor Shein (Shein), also from China, “have almost single-handedly influenced advertising costs in the US, particularly on Google and Meta's payment channels.”

Temu is growing rapidly around the world

Behind the huge advertising expenses, the commercial results Temu has achieved in the past year are undoubtedly outstanding. The platform is now viewed by more and more people in the industry as a disruptive force in global e-commerce.

Pinduoduo has kept Temu's performance secret until now, but its US-listed shares have soared 70% since July, while Alibaba and JD have suffered severe losses. According to Citi analyst Alicia Yap, Temu may have processed $4.2 billion in transactions in the third quarter, accounting for about 13% of Pinduoduo's total revenue.

According to an industry statistic, Temu is now the fourth most visited retail website in the US, behind Amazon, Walmart, and eBay.

According to Second Measure, which analyzes consumer bank card transaction data, Temu's sales in May this year surpassed competitor Shein for the first time in the US, about 20% higher than that of competitor Shein. Since then, its lead has been growing every month, with Temu's sales in the US more than double Shein's in September.

Goldman Sachs's report shows that the bank's current valuation of Temu has risen from 20 billion US dollars to 37 billion US dollars.

Chen Lei, chairman and co-CEO of Pinduoduo Group, said in an earnings call this week, “Although our business outside of China is still in its early stages, significant progress has been made since it was launched a year ago.”

However, Chen Lei also warned, “Although we have expanded our scope of business, the business is still in its early stages and is still facing uncertainty.”

Liu Jun, vice president of finance at Pinduoduo, further explained during the conference call that at present, cross-border business is still in a very early stage. Many of the platform's initiatives are in the customization stage, and the team is understanding different markets and consumer needs. “It's going to be a challenging, iterative process, but also fun.”

Liu Jun said that Temu's current consumers come from more than 70 different countries and regions, and their cultural backgrounds are not all the same. He hopes to be able to purchase directly from the factory and provide consumers with the best products and services through direct channels.

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