Temu app downloads have completely flatlined in the US
The number of US downloads declined slightly for the first time in February, according to Apptopia, coinciding with a pause in paid search ads.
Even before a lackluster earnings report wiped out $55 billion worth of Temu parent company PDD Holdingsmarket value on Monday, there were signs that US interest in Temu was waning.
The number of Temu app downloads in the US dropped 2% in February and 15% in March, compared to the same months last year, according to Apptopia estimates. There were declines in April and June as well, though the growth rate ticked up slightly in July.
On the other hand, global downloads remained strong and kept growing sharply. Increasingly, US downloads have become a much smaller portion of worldwide downloads.
The reasons for the drop were unclear, but Apptopia’s Vice President of Research, Tom Grant, said it was a strategic shift. He pointed out a pause in paid search efforts by Temu during the second quarter corresponded with the decline in downloads. Both mobile ad impressions and paid ads by Temu in the App Store and Google Play Store were down, Apptopia's research showed.
“Maybe they stopped spending as much on advertising, which would normally make their growth slow down, but it could also help them to be profitable,” Grant said. PDD reported an operating profit of 32.56 billion yuan, a 156% surge from a year ago.
And as American officials started to question the data risks and trade loophole exploitations associated with Temu and other Chinese e-commerce companies, the company has also aimed to reduce its reliance on the US market, The Information reported earlier this year. Temu launched in the US in September 2022, and the US market accounted for 60% of its total sales in 2023.
