Times are tough for Temu. The premiere Chinese e-tailer experienced massive growth in its first couple years of operation, boasting over 100 million US downloads from 2022 to 2024. However in 2025 that luck began to run out, as President Trump issued a series of tariffs that dramatically raised the costs of exporting goods to the United States. The taxes have raised questions for outlets like Temu, eroding their ability to profit in the country. Given its status as a significant player in the e-commerce landscape, Temu’s fate has wide-reaching implications for competitors, consumers, and the market at large. 

We walked through the timeline of Temu’s troubles, shining a light on its shifting strategy over the past six months, including some measurable impacts on its digital performance.

Ad Spend Collapse Triggers Sharp Drops in App Downloads and Web Traffic

First, let’s rewind a bit. By April of 2025, initial tariffs impacting China had already been instituted. The biggest inflection point for Temu’s US outlook, however, came when the Trump administration eliminated a key loophole — one which had allowed packages under $800 to enter the United States sans import tax. Seeing the repeal of this “de minimis exemption”, Temu quickly pulled back US ad dollars almost entirely. In the two weeks following the announcement of this new rule (and before it went into effect in May), Temu’s ad spend plummeted a full 94%. 

This decimation had real and immediate impacts on both mobile and web performance. The company’s digital ad impressions decreased by 95% over the same period, with app downloads plummeting 54% and website visits also dropping 20%. While multiple macroeconomic and competitive factors were also at play during this period, the timing of policy changes aligns closely with Temu’s abrupt pullback. 

Nine Months Later: Digital Performance Suffers, Temu Reroutes to Europe 

Nine months on from the initial shockwave, Temu has gradually started to raise its spend again, but overall ad dollars from May to December are still 54% lower than the previous seven month period, pre-tariffs. And the reverberating impacts on Temu’s digital performance are clear to see. App downloads are down 23%, impressions 65%, and even weekly time spent per user has dropped 19%. So where did all this budget go? Well, namely to Europe. 

In the same period when Temu was pulling back investment from the US, it was refocusing growth efforts on other markets. From May to December, Temu increased ad spend in the Netherlands (+84%), France (+36%), Italy (+32%), and the United Kingdom (+28%), reallocating resources to regions with more hospitable trade policies. Temu has been able to retain a significant foothold in Europe, claiming between 3 and 5% of Shopping category market share in the countries mentioned. However, Temu did still maintain a presence in the United States. 

Strategy Shift: U.S. Channel Mix Becomes More Concentrated 

As of December 2025, Temu still holds ~1% of US Shopping ad spend (down from 2% pre-tariffs). Its channel mix has become more consolidated since the shakeup, with the company leaning even more heavily into Facebook. In the seven month period before the tariffs were enacted, Meta platforms made up 65% of Temu’s US ad spend. Post-tariffs, that portion has climbed to 78%. It seems in the face of rising costs, the e-tailer is doubling down on core platforms and pulling back on experimentation. 

However, even kingpin Facebook was a victim of decreased budget, with net spend on the platform decreasing 40% period-over-period (PoP), and Instagram down 62%. Interestingly, the only channel that didn’t exhibit PoP declines was Mobile App ads, climbing 170% to ultimately form 5% of Temu’s post-tariffs channel mix. Non-Meta social platforms were all sacrificed in the May through December reshuffling, with Reddit (-100%), X (-98%), TikTok (-89%), Snapchat (-85%), and YouTube (-82%), all experiencing massive declines. 

Images Reign Supreme in Creative Shakeup 

Temu’s creative mix has also shifted slightly, with images climbing from 74 to 81% of all ads — likely because they are cheaper and easier to produce than video content. Meanwhile, in France and Italy (countries where Temu has recently boosted ad spend) images only make up 67 and 54%, respectively, of all creatives. The brand’s creative placements stateside have remained relatively unchanged, although it did boost spend on Facebook Marketplace ads by five percentage points, shave four points off of Feed ads, and lean a little more heavily into Stories. 

Temu’s post-tariff strategy highlights how quickly global e-commerce players can be forced to recalibrate in response to policy shifts. As trade dynamics continue to evolve, performance data across channels and regions will be critical for understanding where growth remains viable, and where pressure is likely to persist.