The rise of Shemu
What a rise: Shemu now has over 180 million monthly users in the European Union.
Now some may be wondering: who on earth is “Shemu”?
Shemu: born from a slip of the tongue
Well, in this week’s episode of Let’s talk Marketplace, Ingrid and Valerie discussed the latest reports on the user numbers of all “very large online platforms” active in the EU. Last year, the EU Commission obliged them to disclose their monthly user numbers in the EU under the Digital Services Act if they exceed 45 million. And who is brand new on this list? Shein and Temu – or “Shemu” – an unintentional slip of the tongue by Valerie during the podcast recording.
Laughs aside, we soon came to the conclusion that we had accidentally coined a term that was too good to delete. After all, Shein and Temu are often part of the same list of arguments and have a few things in common. Both companies are Chinese, both companies are growing tremendously fast, especially outside of China, both are known for their low prices and high engagement rates – and both companies are the ubiquitous nightmare for all European brands and retailers. And indeed, other market watchers have adopted the term, so we really seem to have coined some kind of new industry standard… So let’s take a look at the rise of Shemu.
Therefore now to the impressive user statistics: In the EU, Temu has 75 million users, Shein 108 million – so together around 183 million. This puts “Shemu” just ahead of Amazon with its outstanding 181 million users in the EU.
Large platforms next to Shemu
Apart from the new entries, the EU list of very large online platforms offers a lot of interesting insights. We have condensed it here to show only the platforms relevant to the marketplace business:
- TikTok’s reach in Europe is also extremely impressive, especially in view of the supposedly ever-pending launch of TikTok Shop in Germany.
- AliExpress and Zalando, which has so far fought in vain against its classification as a very large online platform by the EU, are close behind the newcomer Shein.
- And Temu was only launched in Europe a year ago and already has 75 million users. Impressive. And somehow also frightening.