The Absurd Economics of Wish, AliExpress, and Temu

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Temu is everywhere, promising that you can shop like a billionaire buying $10 wireless speakers, $12 sneakers, $20 drones and other cheap gadgets, clothes, backed with the promise of free shipping, 90-day returns, 30-day price adjustments, and deliveries within 2 weeks. But Temu isn’t the first to sell generic, unbranded, mass-produced Chinese products online at radically low prices. Before Temu, there was AliExpress and Wish - who both went to market decades ago with the exact same value prop, unbelievably low prices, and wacky advertising.

Wish was the earliest entrant into this space and the SF-based startup was once one of Silicon Valley’s darling unicorns. It all begs the question - how exactly do these companies stay alive selling $5-10 items online? In this episode, we’ll cover the business of selling cheap Chinese-made junk online through the rise and fall of Wish, the persistence of AliExpress, and the sudden emergence of Temu - and how all of this ties back to greed, growth and Silicon Valley.

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0:00 The Dollar Store Platform
8:20 The Rise & Fall of Wish
16:32 Irresponsible Burn
30:50 Fool Me Three Times