背景介绍：
8年前诞生于上海的拼多多，从“五环外经济”的低线市场做起，一步步完成逆袭，搅动电商两极格局；而“出海”美国后，这套打法只用一年时间，就俘获了消费者的心。据摩根士丹利报告，15%的美国人在拼多多海外版 Temu 下过单，尽管很少登上主流舆论场，但实际上其覆盖人群已经相当广泛。那么，在未来，Temu 能否打败亚马逊，成为美国最大的电商平台呢？
How worried
should Amazon be about Shein and Temu?
亚马逊应该多担心 Shein 和 Temu?
Dirt-cheap
products and marketing splurges are catching clicks
廉价产品和大手笔营销正在收获点击量
“Shop like a billionaire.” With that
enticing
slogan Temu
touted itself to Americans watching the Super Bowl on February 11th. Football
fans had been treated to a similar advert from the e-commerce company at last
year’s event. But this time the message was
hammered
home.
“像亿万富翁那样购物。”在2月11日的超级碗比赛中，Temu 向美国观众打出了这个诱人的口号来宣传自己。这家电商公司在去年的超级碗比赛中也向球迷展示过类似的广告。但这一次，它火力全开。
In all, Temu’s ad played five times. That won’t have been cheap. A 30-second slot during this year’s Super Bowl cost around $7m. JPMorgan Chase, a bank, reckons the company will spend $3bn on marketing this year, up from $1.7bn in 2023.
Temu 的广告播放了五次。这必然价格不菲：今年超级碗的30秒广告收费约700万美元。根据摩根大通的估计，Temu 今年将在营销上支出30亿美元，而2023年的支出为17亿美元。
Temu, based in Boston, is an offshoot of Pinduoduo, a
Chinese e-commerce firm. It is attempting to replicate the success of Shein, a
Chinese fast-fashion seller, which shot to success in America in 2021 helped by
clever marketing and ultra-low prices.
总部位于波士顿的 Temu 是中国电商公司拼多多的子公司。它试图复制中国快时尚电商 Shein 于2021年在美国的异军突起，后者的成功得益于巧妙的营销和超低的价格。
In their bid to win over American shoppers the duo are spending so
lavishly
on digital ads that their footprints show up in big tech companies’ earnings. On February 1st Susan Li, the chief financial officer of Meta, a social-media giant, said that Chinese advertisers contributed 10% of her firm’s revenue last year and five percentage points to its worldwide revenue growth.
为了赢得美国消费者的青睐，这两家公司在数字广告上大手笔撒钱，在美国科技巨头的财报上留下了明显印记。2月1日，社交媒体巨头 Meta 的首席财务官苏珊·李表示，中国广告主去年贡献了 Meta 营收的10%，以及5个百分点的全球收入增长。
In November Josh Silverman, the boss of Etsy, an online marketplace for artisan knick-knacks, blamed Temu and Shein for pushing up the price of digital advertising.
去年11月，在线手工艺品市场Etsy的首席执行官约什·希弗曼认为是 Temu 和 Shein 推高了数字广告的价格。
All that spending has bought some brand recognition.
Last year Temu was the most downloaded app in America, Britain, France and
Germany, according to Business of Apps, a research firm. Shein is already a
shopping sensation among American teenagers. But can the firms win over
American shoppers en masse?
大笔支出换来了一定的品牌认知度。根据研究公司 Business of Apps 的数据，Temu 是美国、英国、法国和德国去年下载量最高的应用。Shein 已经成为备受美国青少年青睐的购物应用。但这两家公司能否赢得广大美国消费者的青睐呢？
Although Temu stocks a broader range of items, from
children’s toys to industrial tools, than Shein, which mostly sells clothing,
they have similar business models. For both, the main advantage is price.
Shein 主要销售服装，Temu 的商品种类更多，从儿童玩具到工业工具等。但两家公司的商业模式相似。主要优势都是价格。
Michael Morton of MoffettNathanson, a research firm, estimates that the same items of women’s clothing on Temu are two to four times dearer on American websites. Temu offers electric toothbrushes, sunglasses and backpacks for about $1 each.
研究公司 MoffettNathanson 的迈克尔·莫顿估计，同类女装在美国购物网站的价格是 Temu 的两到四倍。Temu 上出售每件约1美元的电动牙刷、太阳镜和背包。
The pair keep costs low in many ways. One is to cut out
middlemen and deal directly with Chinese factories. Another is to charge
merchants lower fees than American rivals do. They also
eschew
enormous logistics operations in
America like Amazon’s.
两家公司靠很多方法来保持低价。其一是省去中间商，直接从中国工厂进货。另一个是对商家收取的佣金比美国竞争对手收取的少。
Instead they ship products from warehouses in China and have them delivered to shoppers in America by UPS, FedEx or the post. Customers thus get low prices, but not speedy delivery. Packages can take weeks to arrive.
它们也没有像亚马逊那样在美国建立庞大的物流业务，而是选择从中国的仓库发货，通过 UPS、联邦快递或邮政将产品送到美国消费者手中。因此顾客能享受到低价，但无法快速收货。等待包裹运抵可能需要几周。
For now, Temu is focused on market share rather than
profit. Bernstein, a broker, reckons that it loses around $10 per item sold in
America. It may be able to keep this up for a while, bankrolled by Pinduoduo’s
domestic success. Last year the parent firm generated $12bn in cash from
operations.
目前而言，Temu 专注于市场份额而非利润。经纪公司盛博估计，Temu 在美国每销售一件商品约亏损10美元。有拼多多在中国的成功提供资金支持，这种状况或许还可以维持一段时间；去年，这家母公司的经营现金流达120亿美元。
Shein, by contrast, is looking to raise more funds. In November it filed for an initial public offering in America. If the listing happens, it will be huge: at its most recent funding round in May 2022 the company was valued at $66bn.
相比之下，Shein 正在寻求筹集更多资金。去年11月，它在美国申请上市。如果成功，上市规模将非常庞大。在2022年5月的最新一轮融资中，该公司的估值为660亿美元。
重难点词汇
：
entice
[ɪnˈtaɪs] v. 诱使；诱惑
hammer
[ˈhæmər] n. 锤子；榔头 v. 用锤反复敲打；猛烈抨击
lavishly
[ˈlævɪʃli] adv. 丰富地；浪费地
eschew
[ɪsˈtʃuː] v. 避开；回避
