By: Toby Bon

SAN JOSE, CALIF. — “Temu”, an online shopping app, has gained astonishing popularity among customers with unbelievable prices and benefits.

Temu was founded by a company named PDD Holdings, a multinational commerce group, in Boston, Massachusetts. The online shopping app launched in Sept., 2022. As soon as it launched, it was widely successful across the App Store and Google Play. The company also owns a similar business called Pinduoduo, a Chinese online shopping app for groceries and appliances. 

With all the success in the app though, there have been customers wondering if the app is legit and safe. This is because of the price of products that Temu sells on their service. Temu offers promotions and deals that can make a product free or at a high discount price. Most customers wonder, how are the prices on the app so cheap? Is it a scam? 

For short, Temu is not a scam. The main reason for the cheap price tag on items is because of the app’s affiliation with its sister company, Pinduoduo. Temu has access to Pinduoduo’s ease of supplies, which lets them negotiate cheaper prices from suppliers. They then take the cheaper prices on items from Pinduoduo’s supply chain and pass it onto Temus customers. Temu also has reliable companies that will sell products on their app like Lenovo, a tech company.

Other causes contribute to Temu’s very cheap prices, such as the app being a site of a third-party supplier marketplace. Sellers will try to compete with each other by lowering prices of their products so that customers will buy from them instead. Products will also be shipped to the customers address straight from where the item was originated from. Other products are also 

unbranded, which means that the cost will be lower. For customers, the easiest way for a product to be the lowest price is by receiving coupons, rewards, and deals from the app. To get rewards and deals, customers can invite people that have or don’t have the app, and have them use their invitation so that they can get money from people joining their invitation. There is also a benefit to people that are using the invitation, as they can receive coupons for completing simple tasks like spinning a wheel. Coupons can also be rewarded daily, but they have a 24 hour limit before it expires.

I think that Temu gives great deals for stuff that I need, especially since I am still a student in high school with no job. I first learned about Temu from my friend who invited me to the app so that he could get a gift. I was also able to use his invitation to get a deal that allowed me to buy ten items and get seven free. At first, I thought that the app would be a scam because of how much I was able to save on money. After this I researched about the app more to see if Temu was a scam. By using articles and videos on Youtube to see if anyone got their items they bought on Temu, I was able to get confirmation that it is real. For me, things I like about the app is that it is a great way to save money, it offers good deals / coupons, free shipping for first three orders, and exceptional items. Some things I do dislike about Temu is that coupons / deals are too short, sometimes items, like shoes, are very limited with only a few sizes, and navigating through the app is a little confusing. When I ordered on the app, my items were at my door by no later than a week, which I like.

Freshman Linus Jose, stated what he liked and disliked about the app. “I like that you are able to receive money for free.” Jose said. One thing Jose didn’t like about the app was that there was no way to get gift cards.