• A new language option on popular Chinese e-commerce platform, Temu, allows South Africans to do their shopping in isiZulu.
• This is the first time the company has allowed any other language besides English on its SA site.
• Online shoppers will be able to see product names, descriptions and reviews all in isiZulu.
• For more financial news, go to the News24 Business front page.

South African online shoppers can now access the Temu site using another one of the country's official languages after the Chinese e-commerce giant launched an isiZulu language option on its site.

This is the first time the company has featured a language besides English for its South African site. Globally, it supports multiple languages.

By choosing the isiZulu option, customers will be able to access the entire site in the language, including the name of products, their descriptions, and the reviews. All the menu options and prompts are also in isiZulu.

Along with other major Chinese online shopping platforms, Temu has become very popular among South African shoppers since its introduction in January 2024.

A News24 survey released this year showed that one in three South Africans had used Temu, with nearly 40% of 1 700 respondents using the site monthly.

When asked why they had chosen Temu for their shopping, 81% of respondents said it was for the affordability of the products.

But Temu, along with the other Chinese online giant Shein, has drawn criticism about the amount of tax that has been paid on their sales in SA, with the South African Revenue Service (SARS) saying that an estimated R3.5 billion in tax has been lost in sales from online retailers and e-commerce platforms.

Shoppers only paid duties of 20%, with no VAT added, for their clothing packages valued under R500.

READ | Shein, Temu packages to be hit by VAT from next month

SARS previously planned to enforce 45% tariffs, plus VAT, on Shein and Temu orders. However, this plan was not implemented, with the service only able to implement 15% payable VAT on packages with a 20% levy for packages less than R500 as of September last year.

Critics have said more would be needed to level the playing field in the e-commerce sector.

The world's biggest educational app, Duolingo, introduced isiZulu as a language for users to learn in 2022. Duolingo has more than 103 million active users a month.

* Temu did not respond to News24 queries by the allotted deadline.

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