Prime Minister orders investigation! Temu's low-priced products may be boycotted by this country

Last week, Temu quietly launched in Thailand, successfully entering the third country in Southeast Asia after the Philippines and Malaysia. Once the news broke, it caused quite a stir in the local market.

Like other sites, Temu Thailand still provides free shipping, 90-day free return and other benefits, and attracted a large number of consumers in just a few days. Temu also said that Thai people have low purchasing power, which is in line with the platform's business model and marketing strategy, and sells goods at prices that consumers can easily accept, with discounts as high as 90%.

However, Temu's fierce "offensive" has caused concern among many people in the industry.

Pawoot Pongvitayapanu, honorary president of the Thai E-Commerce Association , said that Temu's entry into Thailand is bound to trigger a new wave of price wars.

Pawoot also pointed out that the prices of goods on platforms such as Shopee, Lazada, and TikTok Shop that have entered Thailand before are not enough to threaten local businesses. Temu bypasses middlemen and directly targets consumers, while also providing additional benefits such as Thai language support, local currency transactions, free shipping, and refund guarantees, which are too attractive for Thai buyers.

In the short term, "low-priced" goods are more beneficial than harmful to consumers, but in the long term, this will intensify price competition among e-commerce platforms, which is not conducive to the development of the local e-commerce industry, especially small and medium-sized enterprises. In addition, he also mentioned, "We can foresee more factory closures and millions of cheap Chinese products pouring in."

Meanwhile, the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) said that if the government does not take measures to deal with Temu's entry, Thai manufacturers are likely to face a strong impact from a new round of cheap goods from China.

Some professionals have analyzed that the reason behind low prices is "the uneven quality of products". When major e-commerce platforms offer low prices, more and more low-quality products will flood into the market, which will not only damage consumer rights and undermine market stability, but also reduce consumers' trust in online shopping products , which is not conducive to the long-term development of the e-commerce industry.

In response to the industry's concerns, Thai Prime Minister Sreeta Tawisin also paid close attention to the matter.

According to foreign media reports, the Thai Prime Minister has asked relevant departments to investigate whether Temu complies with Thai laws and pays the required taxes. He also warned that the arrival of foreign e-commerce platforms poses a threat to Thailand's retail industry, and any Thai officials who help these platforms evade taxes will be severely punished.

Last month, in order to protect the development of local businesses, the Thai government announced that it would impose a 7% value-added tax on all imported goods priced below 1,500 baht. Now, in response to the entry of Temu, it has once again strengthened the investigation and supervision of imported goods.

Professionals pointed out that in the future, the entire Southeast Asian market, including Thailand, may introduce stricter tariff policies, which will inevitably further hinder the development of low-price platforms represented by Temu.