🐸 It’s not easy being green…or wearing a Kermit the Frog shirt while talking about Temu. Yet that’s exactly how Episode 7 of The Ostrich Report opens: me in full frog mode, Hendrik on the other mic, diving head-first into the most polarising marketplace on the planet.
Temu (yes, “Tay-moo”) isn’t a sideshow anymore. It’s a $B+ engine of cross-border commerce, a logistics experiment running at TikTok speed, and a masterclass in how to make Western consumers rethink price, trust, and delivery promises. Everyone you meet in ecommerce has an opinion — good, bad, indifferent. This week we rewind to fast-forward: we set the scene, we break down the real story of Temu, and we ask whether its model is a warning sign, a blueprint…or both.
“You can tell by the way I wear my shirt, I’m a Temu guy.”
It started as a joke on the show. But it’s also a signal. Marketplaces like Temu are no longer fringe, they’re mainstream, and they’re already reshaping the playbooks brands, agencies and SIs thought were safe.
We dig into:
– How Temu is rewriting the rules of value and velocity.
– Why its model creates both irresistible reach and uncomfortable risk.
– What Western brands can (and can’t) copy.
– The bigger question: is “cheap” a moat or a time bomb?
This isn’t your typical “hot-take” podcast. We’re building a real community around unfiltered marketplace talk. EVOLVE Commerce Club are our community partner on The Ostrich Report — bringing founders, brand operators, agency leads, and curious industry nerds together around each episode.
And yes, we’re looking for a sponsor. If your company wants to sit at the intersection of global marketplaces, brand strategy and unvarnished conversation, our DMs are open. This is where ecommerce people actually talk like ecommerce people.
Over the next few weeks, we’re bringing some truly global, wildly talented guests to the show, operators and thinkers who’ve built, scaled and sometimes burned down the very models everyone else is still copying. It’s going to be unmissable.
🎙️ Episode 7 — “Temu, Kermit & the Future of Value”, is live now. Watch, listen, share, argue, tag the friend who swears Temu is a fad, and then tell us what you think.
Paging Hendrik Laubscher
