PDD Holdings subsidiary Temu , the Boston-based budget shopping app operator, will start operations in Australia and New Zealand next Monday, weeks after it achieved record-high sales in the United States . As part of its commercial launch in the two Oceanian countries on March 13, Temu will exempt merchants on the platform from commission and guarantee fees, according to a report on Monday by the state-backed Shanghai Securities Journal. Following that launch, goods listed on Temu in North America will also be made available to consumers in Australia and New Zealand, the report said. Temu declined to comment on Monday. The Temu app, which first rolled out in the US in September, expanded into Canada last month. Similar to Nasdaq-listed PDD’s Pinduoduo platform in mainland China, the Temu app features a wide selection of budget-priced items, with some of the cheapest small gadgets and home decor items costing below US$1. Temu’s latest expansion initiative shows how next-generation Chinese e-commerce apps have become an online retail force in other large consumer markets around the world on the back of their highly competitive pricing strategy, which has challenged more established global shopping platforms such as Amazon.com . Temu, for example, was the most downloaded free iOS app in the US since mid-February, according to market tracker Data.ai. It was also the most downloaded app in the US in November and December, according to research firm Sensor Tower. US sales soar for PDD’s Temu budget shopping app amid expansion into Canada Temu recorded a gross merchandise volume (GMV) exceeding US$50 million in the week through February 5, according to New York-based market research firm YipitData, just ahead of the airing of its television advertisement during the broadcast of Super Bowl LVII on February 12. Among its peers in the US such as Amazon.com and Etsy, Temu has the most number of users that overlap with the target customer base of fast-fashion app operator Shein , although the PDD-owned platform has fewer overall subscribers, according to YipitData. PDD’s “international business is currently in a very early stage”, said Liu Jun, the company’s vice-president of finance, during a conference call with analysts last November. Still, Temu is aiming for an annual GMV of US$3 billion this year according to a report in October by Chinese media 36Kr, which cited sources familiar with the matter. That target amount is a tenth of Shein’s annual GMV, the report said.