Chinese shopping platform Temu blasted for marketing tactics

Captured image from the Temu app shows a roulette game that provides credits and free gifts as part of its aggressive marketing tactics to woo Korean customers. [Yonhap]

Chinese online shopping platform Temu has come under fire for its aggressive marketing tactics to lure customers in Korea, industry sources said Tuesday.

The direct purchase app, run by Chinese company PDD Holdings, has emerged as one of the popular shopping destinations for budget-conscious Korean consumers by giving away free gifts and credit that can be used as cash with tactics that include discounts of up to 90 percent, free one-time returns within 90 days after purchase and rewards of up to hundreds of thousands of won.

To earn the credit and freebies, Temu's existing subscribers are required to invite their acquaintances through the app's refer-a-friend program.

Both existing and new subscribers can participate in daily reward events after inviting at least seven others to win credit, and up to 60 friends to receive advertised freebies.

Temu sought to compete with its bigger Chinese rival AliExpress, which launched here in 2018, making inroads into Korea last July that saw the number of Korean subscribers for the app jump more than tenfold to 5.7 million in January from 520,000 last August, according to mobile market research firm WiseApp.

PDD's Temu and Alibaba's AliExpress have strengthened their presence in Korea with unbeatable low prices for their products and unrivaled marketing despite longer delivery times and unstable product quality.

Yonhap