Arriving with fanfare in Europe in 2023, Temu promised wonders: cheap products, delivered free of charge, and promotions galore. A year later, the platform attracts millions of customers, but also serious suspicions.
Temu: e-commerce that thrills
On the product side, it’s a mess: toys with questionable standards, cosmetics without a list of ingredients and instructions in Chinese. Customs, overwhelmed by the flood of packages, allows many non-compliant items to pass through. In short, Temu often means difficulty in terms of quality.
But that’s not all. The platform’s app, downloaded en masse, is the subject of heavy accusations: some security experts speak outright of espionage. In March, a promotional campaign drove home the point: in exchange for vouchers, customers had to agree to the lifetime use of their personal data, including their photos and their voice. Temu denies it outright, but the company’s image has taken a serious hit… which earned him a well-deserved Golden Cactus!
Another winner of the day: Dazn, the platform which broadcasts Ligue 1, receives the “Low Cost Cactus”. If you think it smells burnt, you’re not alone. Launched at €29.99 per month, the offer was quickly sold out at €19.90 due to lack of subscribers. Today, only 400,000 courageous people have subscribed to it, and for good reason: the quality matches the low prices.
« Everything is low cost », says Romain Molina, journalist specializing in football. Fewer cameras, no pre- or post-match programs, and an economic achievement: we are far from the premium experience offered by Amazon Prime last year. Even Ligue 1 seems to have given up. Result: frustrated fans, sloppy production, and Dazn ends up offside.
For Free, the year turned into a disaster. In 2024, the operator suffered a hack on an unprecedented scale. Two files were stolen: one containing the personal data of 19.1 million customers, the other the bank details of 5.1 million of them. The unscrupulous hackers published extracts on forums and put the entire lot on sale for $70,000.
Free’s communication was also hacked, at least in spirit. The operator initially did not mention the stolen banking data, fueling the concern of its customers. For an access provider, we have seen more reassuring. Free therefore receives the “Cactus of vulnerability”.
With these three big failures among several others, the Cacti of 2024 consumption do not lack spice. If Temu, Dazn and Free thought they would slip through the cracks, they were very wrong. One thing is certain: when titanic companies stumble, consumers forget nothing.
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