Temu, a fast-growing e-commerce platform known for cheap deals, is making inroads into new markets as its parent firm sets up a base in Dublin, joining a raft of tech giants including Meta and Twitter that have opened offices in the tax-friendly Irish capital.
Semafor was the first to notice and report the move to Dublin earlier this week.
PDD Holdings, the Dublin-based corporate entity behind Temu, also owns Pinduoduo, which has become one of China’s largest online marketplaces since its launch in 2015 by ex-Google engineer Colin Huang.
From the sound of it, PDD Holdings was created to separate the branding and some of the operational efforts between globally-facing Temu and China-focused Pinduoduo. Prior to Temu’s commencement in 2022, the “principal executive offices” that run Pinduoduo were Shanghai-based Pinduoduo Inc.
Pinduoduo is still based out of Shanghai while Temu is headquartered in Boston. Temu’s teams in Boston and Dublin mostly perform functions in tax, marketing and legal matters, according to its employees’ LinkedIn profiles.
In its annual report published in late April, the Dublin entity was listed as the “principal executive offices” of PDD Holdings. The filing didn’t break down Temu’s earnings as the platform didn’t have a “material impact” on the parent’s financial results in 2022 despite its strong momentum in the first few months of its debut.
At the time of writing, Temu is ranked No.1 in the App Store’s overall category in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the U.K. and the U.S., according to data analytics firm Data.ai.