Head group of Pinduoduo and Temu forces centres from China to Ireland

May 5, 2023: PDD Holdings, the parent group of e-commerce locations Temu and Pinduoduo, moved its centre from China to Ireland, underscoring the Chinese tech firm’s international push.

The U.S.-listed company noted the Irish capital of Dublin as its “principal administrative office” in a recent statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It had last listed Shanghai as its principal office.

PDD Holdings started as Pinduoduo, the fast-growing discount e-commerce firm in China. The firm rebranded this year to PDD Holdings, creating a parent firm for Pinduoduo and Temu, its international e-commerce effort.

The move to Ireland may signal PDD’s attempt to boost its international presence. Temu was quietly launched in the previous year. It is trying to duplicate the success that Chinese fashion brand Shein has found and challenge the likes of Amazon with its vast array of cheap products.

PDD has created a big marketing push regarding Temu in the U.S. and bought an ad spot Super Bowl, which often goes for millions of dollars.

Temu’s app has been installed over 50 million times since its launch in September 2022, Apptopia states. It took Shein three years to cross this mark.

Gross merchandise value, which is the main amount transacted across Temu’s platform, increased from $3 million to $387 million in March, according to business research company YipitData.

Ireland is a main location for foreign technology companies to set up shops due to its membership in the European Union and minimum headline corporation tax prices of 12.5%. Meta and Apple are among several U.S. tech giants with European headquarters in Ireland.