If you shop online, you've likely noticed Temu, the fast-growing e-commerce marketplace. But the owner of Temu is a mystery to most Americans. Temu's parent company, PDD Holdings (PDD -0.78%), is one of China's largest e-commerce companies, and it's employed a similar playbook with Temu as it has with Pinduoduo, its primary business in China.
NASDAQ: PDD
Key Data Points
The competitor to Shein and Amazon (AMZN +0.28%) has grown rapidly by selling a wide range of bargain-priced goods in major international markets, like the U.S. It's advertised aggressively to build brand awareness and interest in its products.
Since launching, Temu has quickly established a presence felt by competitors, consumers, and even in the online advertising industry, where it's spent heavily on digital ads. Temu doesn't report revenue, but its website had 2.11 billion visits in June 2025, and nearly a third of its traffic comes from the U.S., its largest market.
Individuals
According to the company's 2024 annual report, only one individual was listed as a principal shareholder:
Zheng Huang, 1.41 billion shares, 24.8% ownership
Zheng Huang, also known as Colin Huang, is the co-founder and former CEO of PDD Holdings. Now a billionaire, Huang was part of the team that launched Alphabet's (GOOG +0.40%)(GOOGL +0.42%) Google in China.
After founding PDD in 2015, which was Pinduoduo at the time, Huang stepped down as CEO in July 2020. He gave up his chairmanship the following year, leaving him no formal position in the company. He is now working on food and life sciences research, potentially building on Pinduoduo's innovation in food distribution.
PDD also says its group of nine directors and executive officers owns a combined 76.6 million shares of the stock, 1.3% of the shares outstanding.
Institutional shareholders
Pinduoduo lists two institutional shareholders in its annual report, although third-party sites cite others. Below are the company's top five institutional shareholders.
1. Tencent, 783.5 million shares, 13.8% of shares outstanding
Chinese tech giant Tencent (TCEHY +0.24%), best known as the parent of Chinese super app WeChat, is also a prolific investor, holding stakes in dozens of startups and publicly traded companies.
PDD calls it a collaborator, too, saying it uses WeChat and WeChat Pay in its business. Tencent CEO Haifeng Lin has been on the PDD board of directors since 2017. Tencent became a principal shareholder in PDD in 2017, prior to PDD's U.S. initial public offering (IPO) in 2018. PDD entered into a strategic cooperation agreement with Tencent in February 2018.
2. PDD Partners, 370.8 million shares, 6.5% of shares outstanding
PDD Partners is listed as an institutional shareholder in PDD Holdings. However, the entity is ultimately controlled by Colin Huang, the sole director of the two entities under which PDD Partners is a subsidiary. Its controlling entity is a limited liability holding company in the Virgin Islands.
3. Baillie Gifford, 34.4 million American depositary shares (ADS), 2.4% of shares outstanding
Bailie Gifford is an investment management firm based in Scotland and owns PDD in its worldwide long-term global growth fund.
4. BlackRock, 33.3 million ADS, 2.4% of shares outstanding
BlackRock (BLK +0.29%) is one of the world's largest investment managers, operating several exchange-traded funds (ETFs) under the iShares brand. It owns PDD Holdings, now one of the largest tech stocks in China, through both ETFs and mutual funds.
5. Vanguard Group, 32 million ADS, 2.3% of shares outstanding
Vanguard Group is another massive investment manager, owning shares of PDD in both its ETFs and mutual funds.
Who is on the board of directors of Temu?
Temu doesn't have its own board of directors. As a subsidiary of PDD Holdings, PDD's board oversees Temu. PDD has six directors on its board and three principal executive officers who are not on the board.
Name | Position | Board Member Since |
|---|---|---|
Lei Chen | Chairman and Co-CEO | 2020 |
Jiazhen Zhao | Executive Director and Co-CEO | 2023 |
Anthony Kam Ping Leung | Independent Director | 2019 |
Haifeng Lin | Director | 2017 |
Ivonne M.C.M. Rietjens | Independent Director | 2023 |
George Yong-Boon Yeo | Independent Director | 2018 |
Jun Liu | Vice President of Finance | n/a |
Junyun Xiao | Senior Vice President of Operations | n/a |
Zhenwei Zheng | Senior Vice President of Product Development | n/a |
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How to invest in Temu
You can't invest directly in Temu, but you can buy shares of PDD Holdings, its parent company. Although PDD is a Chinese company, it's listed on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange under the stock ticker PDD. You can buy the stock by following these steps.
- Open your brokerage account: Log in to your brokerage account where you handle your investments.
- Search for the stock: Enter the ticker or company name into the search bar to bring up the stock's trading page.
- Decide how many shares to buy: Consider your investment goals and how much of your portfolio you want to allocate to this stock.
- Select order type: Choose between a market order to buy at the current price or a limit order to specify the maximum price you're willing to pay.
- Submit your order: Confirm the details and submit your buy order.
- Review your purchase: Check your portfolio to ensure your order was filled as expected and adjust your investment strategy accordingly.
It's worth noting that PDD doesn't currently break out Temu's results separately. Temu is thought to be significantly smaller than Pinduoduo, but it has contributed to PDD's strong growth rate since its launch. PDD's total revenue has increased annually in recent years, including a 24% year over year increase in 2024.
As Temu grows, PDD may report more details about it, such as revenue, and investors will likely know whether Temu becomes profitable. PDD has been a winning stock for investors. Investors interested in Temu shouldn't hesitate to buy PDD and also get exposure to Pinduoduo, which has seen soaring growth on the top and bottom lines.
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