HANOI - The Chinese online retailer Temu has been told to suspend its operations in Vietnam after it failed to meet an end-November deadline for business registration, the trade ministry said on Thursday.
Temu, owned by the Chinese e-commerce giant PDD Holdings, began offering its services in Vietnam in October. It had been required to register with the government by the end of November, or access to its internet domains and apps would be blocked.
Temu is one of the world’s fastest-growing e-commerce platforms, with sales in the fist half of this year estimated at $20 billion. That compares with $18 billion for all of 2023.
“Temu operations will be temporarily suspended until it completes the registration procedure,” the trade ministry said in a statement.
“The platform has submitted an application for e-commerce service activities in Vietnam which is under authorities’ review.”
The statement did not say how long the suspension would last, or what Temu needed to do to have it lifted.
Thailand also requires foreign e-commerce platforms to register and open a local office if they want to continue doing business in the kingdom.
On Thursday, Vietnamese language options had been removed from Temu’s website when it was accessed from Vietnam.
“Temu is working with the Vietnam E-commerce and Digital Economy Agency and the Ministry of Industry and Trade to register its provision of e-commerce services in Vietnam,” a notification on the website said.
In response to a Reuters’ email request for comment, Temu said it had submitted all required documents for the registration but did not provide any timeframe for the resumption of its operation.
The trade ministry and local businesses have expressed concern about the impact of Chinese online platforms on local markets due to deep discounting. The ministry has also said it is worried about the potential sale of counterfeit items.
Temu has also stumbled in Indonesia where regulators have asked Google and Apple to block it in their app stores in the country to protect small merchants.
Vietnam’s parliament last week approved changes to a tax law to require local operators of foreign e-commerce platforms to pay value-added tax (VAT), and called on the government to scrap a tax exemption for low-cost imported goods.
The finance ministry said last week that it had begun the process to scrap the tax break.
The move will be a blow to the foreign-dominated e-commerce industry, which has benefited from VAT exemption and rules in place since 2010 that stipulate imported goods worth under 1 million dong ($40 or 1,370 baht) are free from duties.