Temu, a US-based online marketplace that sells products manufactured in China, ran $790 million (€720 million) in income through an Irish company in its first 17 months of operation, new accounts show.
The Irish subsidiary, called Whaleco Technology, was incorporated in July 2022. The new accounts show that in the period to the end of December 2023, it registered income of $758 million.
According to the accounts, that income came from “transaction-related services through the Temu ecommerce platform, [and] corporate support services to other affiliates”, the accounts state.
It 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 ran to $747.1 million, leaving it with a pretax profit of $44 million. It paid tax of $5.9 million, the accounts show.
The accounts show that the Whaleco Technology had total assets worth $1.8 billion, made up of just under $990 million in cash and cash equivalents, short-term investments worth $406.4 million, and amounts owed by debtors of nearly $450 million.
Some of that was owed by trade debtors, while some was owed by related group companies.
Meanwhile, it owed $1.8 billion to creditors. The largest proportion of that – $964.7 million – was owed to group undertakings, while just over $480 million was owed to trade creditors.
Whaleco is owned by PDD Holdings, which earlier this year announced it had annual revenues for 2023 of $34.4 billion, nearly double the previous year.
PDD Holdings began the process of moving some of its operations to Ireland in 2022. According to stock exchange filings submitted by the company that year, it moved its “principal executive offices” from Shanghai to an office building on St Stephen’s Green in Dublin.
[ Temu: What is it, how do I pronounce it, and why is it so cheap?Opens in new window ]
PDD was founded in 2015 by Colin Huang, a Chinese tech billionaire, who initially launched Pinduoduo, an ecommerce website mostly focused on selling agricultural products.
In July 2022 PDD launched Temu, which offers heavily discounted consumer goods to online buyers.
Temu has been growing rapidly since then. According to the European Commission, the sales platform has more than 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 designed as a “very large online platform” under the Digital Services Act, which means it will have to “comply with the most stringent rules under the DSA”. These include “the obligation to duly assess and mitigate any systemic risks stemming from their services, including the listing and sale of counterfeit goods, unsafe or illegal products, and items that infringe intellectual property rights”.
Coimisiún na Meán, the Irish regulator, has been in contact with the company in relation to its compliance with those more strict standards.
- Sign up for Business push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Our Inside Business podcast is published weekly – Find the latest episode here
