Summary
On today's show, we go deep on Temu: How does it work, how did it manage such a quick rise in the U.S., and what hints might it offer us about the future of retail? Plus, we'll talk to the bicycle-loving U.S. Representative who is working to shut down a loophole that has proved very helpful to Temu's swift ascent.
This episode was hosted by Nick Fountain and Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi with reporting from Emily Feng. It was produced by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler and Emma Peaslee. It was edited by Keith Romer, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by Cena Loffredo. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This message comes from NPR sponsor HubSpot. |
| 0:03.0 | What if you could find track and close deals all in one place? |
| 0:06.6 | Now you can thanks to HubSpot Sales Hub, a connected customizable sales |
| 0:15.0 | before we start today's show references Amazon and Walmart. |
| 0:19.0 | Amazon is a financial supporter of NPR and pays to distribute some of our content and we also receive support |
| 0:24.5 | from the Walton Family Foundation. |
| 0:27.5 | This is Planet Money from NPR. If you were one of the if you were one of the |
| 0:37.0 | 124 million people who watched the Super Bowl in the US |
| 0:41.0 | you likely saw this ad. |
| 0:43.4 | Shove Like a billionaire. |
| 0:46.4 | And even if you missed it, there's a very good chance you've seen other ads for this same company, TIMU. |
| 0:55.5 | In the last year, the Chinese e-commerce company has spent billions of dollars on ads for |
| 1:00.9 | Google searches on YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. |
| 1:04.8 | We were curious. |
| 1:05.9 | What does it mean to shop like a billionaire? |
| 1:08.5 | What is this thing? |
| 1:10.3 | So we tried it out. |
| 1:11.5 | Basically anything you want to buy, they have it. |
| 1:14.0 | But the more you look into the app, the weirder it gets. |
| 1:17.0 | Chopping on T-Moo feels like this bizarre cross between Amazon and like Super Mario Bros. |
| 1:23.2 | Yeah, they're always trying to get you to play games, like Fish Land. |
| 1:27.5 | Imagine this. |
... |
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