The hurricane continues, Temu has new moves

Recently, Temu's semi-custody process has taken another big step forward.

Since the beginning of 2025, the cross-border sector has shown an "acceleration". Not only have overseas e-commerce platforms extended olive branches to Chinese sellers, but China's cross-border e-commerce platforms are also accelerating their overseas expansion.

Not long ago, two Russian cross-border e-commerce platforms, Wildberries and Ozon , as well as the American pet e-commerce giant Chewy, all extended invitations to Chinese sellers, which also brought more development opportunities to sellers. Temu has also been booming recently and continues to advance its semi-hosting process.

Before the Chinese New Year, on January 24 , Temu launched the Colombian station . After the Chinese New Year, it did not stop. In February, Temu announced that it would connect to multiple new stations. For example, it launched the Norwegian station on February 14 , the Philippine station on February 18 , the UAE station on February 28 , and the Swiss station on March 5 .

According to previous news, Temu semi-hosted sites such as Slovakia and Ireland have been officially opened. There are also reports that Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Luxembourg and Finland will also be opened in the near future .

In addition, the four major local sites, including the Austrian local site on February 17 , the Korean local site on February 21 , the Japanese local site on February 28, and the Canadian local site on March 7, will be launched one after another.

Temu semi-hosting enters Southeast Asia, first stop is the Philippines

Temu is gaining momentum. The "2025 Mobile Market Report" released by SensorTower shows that Temu's daily downloads exceeded one million, surpassing Amazon and becoming the world's most downloaded shopping application in 2024.

In addition, as of December 2024, Temu's cumulative global downloads reached nearly 900 million times, with particularly outstanding performance in Latin America, where downloads increased by 26%.

Not only has its global influence increased significantly, other reports also show that in 2024, Temu's GMV will exceed US$50 billion (approximately RMB 362.71 billion), and it is expected that by 2025, its GMV will further climb to US$70-80 billion (approximately RMB 507.794-580.336 billion).

At the beginning of the new year, Temu continued to accelerate, announcing no less than a dozen new sites that have been opened or will be opened soon, which shows its strong growth momentum and ambition for global expansion.

Previously, Temu semi-hosting had set its sights on multiple countries and regions in Europe and America, and this time it will enter Southeast Asia, with the Philippines as its first stop, indicating that its globalization process has entered a new stage.

Temu semi-hosting chose the Philippines as its first stop in Southeast Asia, which must have been a consideration.

Data shows that by 2024 , the scale of e-commerce in the Philippines is expected to reach US$21 billion ( approximately RMB 152.315 billion ), and will increase to US$60 billion ( approximately RMB 435.186 billion ) by 2030 .

It can be observed that after 2022 , the Philippine e-commerce market has been growing. It is worth mentioning that the young consumer group and high Internet penetration rate in the Philippines provide a good development environment for e-commerce platforms. According to statistics , the average age of the Philippines is 25 years old, the Internet penetration rate is as high as 73% , and the policies of the Philippine market are relatively loose, which is suitable for sellers to test the waters.

The Philippine e-commerce market also presents a development pattern of "two super (Lazada, Shopee) and many strong" development. Lazada , Shopee , Zalora and other major e-commerce platforms in the Philippines, among which Lazada and Shopee have a market share of more than 60% in the Philippines . Temu entered the Philippine market in 2023, but in less than two years, it has also opened up its own path in this market by relying on low prices.

The core of Temu Philippines' semi-hosting model is "platform empowerment and seller autonomy", controlling risks while activating the local supply chain. Semi-hosting is different from full hosting. Semi-hosting is more flexible and allows sellers to list and set prices independently. Sellers only need to bear the responsibility of logistics fulfillment, which can reduce sellers' operating costs by 20%-30% and increase the order fulfillment rate to 95%. This landing in the Philippines may attract more small and medium-sized sellers to join.

The pros and cons of semi-custody

In the face of increasingly competitive environment, efficient logistics and high-quality customer service are becoming more and more important. The semi-hosting model is a model between full hosting and autonomous operation. From the specific progress of Temu semi-hosting, it was first launched in the United States in March 2024, and then expanded to Europe and other regions.

Temu's semi-custodial model is also an important decision to balance platform control and merchant autonomy . At the same time, the semi-custodial model also provides sellers with a certain degree of flexibility, giving them more operational autonomy and improving efficiency.

In the semi-hosted model, although sellers need to manage product information, inventory, delivery and other aspects by themselves, they will also enjoy the traffic support, search ranking weighting , commission discounts , etc. brought by the Temu platform .

Although it has certain advantages, it also brings a series of challenges, such as placing higher requirements on sellers’ inventory management and localization capabilities.

The platform will no longer provide a guarantee for unsold inventory. Sellers need to make their own decisions, accurately grasp market demand and make careful decisions, and prepare goods in Temu's domestic warehouse or designated overseas warehouse in advance .

In a semi-hosted model , Temu allows sellers to adjust product detail pages for different regional markets. This also places higher demands on sellers' localization capabilities , and it becomes particularly important to understand the shopping preferences of consumers in different regions .

Semi-hosting model once became a new trend

Not only Temu, the semi-hosting model seems to have become a new trend for e-commerce platforms to seek development. More and more Chinese cross-border e-commerce platforms have launched the semi-hosting model.

AliExpress launched the semi-hosting model even earlier than Temu. On January 4, 2024, AliExpress announced the full launch of semi-hosting, which attracted widespread attention from cross-border sellers. Subsequently, Alibaba International Station also launched the semi-hosting model in the B2B foreign trade field.

AliExpress is also the first platform in the industry to launch semi-hosted services. It has a large number of third-party sellers and a rich variety of products, covering everything from digital 3C products to clothing and daily necessities.

In AliExpress's semi-hosted model, sellers can set their own prices and operate their stores independently, while enjoying the logistics, marketing and other support provided by the platform. The platform is responsible for warehousing and fulfillment and delivery services.

The semi-hosting model launched by Temu is quite different from AliExpress. Temu is aimed at merchants whose products are located overseas. Sellers need to solve the problem of overseas warehouses, ship goods by themselves, and handle logistics and after-sales issues, while product pricing and sales are controlled by the platform. It is suitable for overseas sellers with overstocked inventory to clear their goods overseas.

In fact, whether it is full trusteeship, semi-trusteeship, or independent operation , each has its advantages and disadvantages, and sellers still need to choose a development model that suits them based on their actual situation.

Temu

Semi-hosting