Temu generates €720m in revenue through Irish subsidiary – The Irish Times

Temu, a US online marketplace selling products made in China, made revenue of $790 million (€720 million) through its Irish subsidiary in its first 17 months of operations, new financial statements show.

The Irish subsidiary, called Whaleco Technology, was founded in July 2022. New financial statements show it posted revenue of $758 million in the year to the end of December 2023.

According to the accounts, that income came from “transaction-related services provided through Temu’s e-commerce platform (and) corporate support services to other affiliates,” the accounts said.

The company also earned $33.1 million in interest on cash and short-term investments, bringing its total income for the year to $791.1 million.

Whaleco’s expenses for the same period were $747.1 million, resulting in a pretax profit of $44 million. It paid taxes of $5.9 million, the accounts show.

The accounts show that Whaleco Technology’s assets were worth a total of $1.8 billion, consisting of nearly $990 million in cash and cash equivalents, short-term investments of $406.4 million and debtor accounts receivable of nearly $450 million.

Part of this amount was due from trade receivables and part from related group companies.

Meanwhile, it owed creditors $1.8 billion. The bulk of that amount – $964.7 million – was owed to group companies, while just over $480 million was owed to trade creditors.

Whaleco is owned by PDD Holdings, which earlier this year announced that its annual revenue in 2023 would be $34.4 billion, almost twice as much as the previous year.

PDD Holdings has begun the process of moving part of its operations to Ireland in 2022. According to stock exchange documents filed by the company this year, it has moved its “principal executive offices” from Shanghai to an office building on St Stephen’s Green in Dublin.

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PDD was founded in 2015 by Colin Huang, a Chinese tech billionaire who initially launched Pinduoduo, an e-commerce site focused primarily on selling agricultural products.

In July 2022, PDD launched Temu, offering online shoppers consumer goods at significantly discounted prices.

It has been growing rapidly since then. According to the European Commission, the sales platform has over 45 million monthly users in the European Union.

The platform has been the subject of regulatory scrutiny by the European Commission. In May, it was formally designated as a “very large online platform” under the Digital Services Act, meaning it will have to “comply with the strictest rules under the DSA.” These include “duties to properly assess and mitigate any systemic risks arising from their services, including the listing and sale of counterfeit, unsafe or illegal products, and items infringing intellectual property rights.”

Coimisiún na Meán, the Irish regulator, has contacted the company regarding its compliance with these more stringent standards.