Discount online shopping platform Temu has changed its name just a year after taking the Australian retail landscape by storm.
A company spokesperson confirmed they had changed the brand’s pronunciation to ‘Teh-mu’ despite heavily launching the original ‘Tee-mu’ pronunciation with a $7 million (A$10.59 million) ad ) during the 2023 Super Bowl.
“As Temu continues to expand into new markets globally, we want to ensure our brand has a consistent and memorable presentation across different regions and languages,” the spokesperson told FEMAIL.
“After careful consideration, we determined that the new pronunciation best achieves this goal.”
The original Super Bowl ad featured a woman walking around, showing off her Temu purchases to the tune of “I like it, it’s mine, the prices blow my mind.”
The new ad, which is animated, features a catchy song about “shopping like a billionaire” and the new pronunciation of the brand’s name.
Fans of the online retailer, which launched in North America in 2022 before heading to Australia and New Zealand and then Europe, were quick to notice the change.
Many of them commented on the old video after returning to “see if they were right.”
‘I KNEW the pronunciation of tee-moo had changed!!! “Now it’s teh-moo and it doesn’t sound so fun anymore,” one woman said.
“Watching both ads back to back is like traveling to a different alternate universe,” laughed another.
‘So I’m not the only one who looked this up! Good. “We’re not crazy,” added a third.
Others dismissed the new pronunciation.
Discount online shopping platform Temu has changed its name just a year after taking the Australian retail landscape by storm
“No matter what happens, I will always pronounce Temu as tee-moo,” said one shopper.
The new ad ran four times during the 2024 Super Bowl and cost approximately $28 million (A$42.34 million).
But according to Choice, Australia’s purchasing watchdog, this is just pocket change for the Chinese-owned company.
Around 1.26 million Australians shop at Temu each month and are on track to spend a total of $1.3 billion this year alone.
The company’s success has been attributed to its aggressive marketing campaigns, “gamification” of the shopping experience and its “unbeatable” prices.
But those same features have also turned off customers, with many claiming that the products must be of lower quality or that the company must make money by selling data.
The Temu app is now located in 50 countries, and most products are made and shipped from China.
According to Temu, its low prices are possible because it connects consumers directly to the factories that produce its products, allowing it to eliminate “multiple middlemen” and offer “wholesale” prices.
The company claims that this process constitutes a “partnership”, hence the name Temu and its original pronunciation.