In today’s Digest, we discuss Temu catching up to Amazon in global cross-border e-commerce, the UK Gambling Commission accusing Meta of ignoring illegal gambling ads, and ByteDance challenging Alibaba with an AI-powered cloud push.

Temu revenue catches up to Amazon 

According to data from the International Post Corporation (IPC), which represents 26 national postal services worldwide, Temu's market share surged from less than 1% in 2022 to 24% last year, matching Amazon’s share of cross-border purchases. IPC chief executive Holger Winklbauer said the rise of Temu reflected a broader increase in Chinese e-commerce exports, even as the global supply chain faces disruption from tighter customs rules in 2025 and 2026.

Temu’s growth has been significant enough to prompt Amazon to launch its own low-cost Amazon Haul service in 2024, while Bernstein Research reported that Temu overtook Amazon in monthly active users the same year.  

Other Chinese platforms have posted more modest results: Shein held steady at 9% market share in 2025, while AliExpress slipped to 8%, down from 12% two years ago. 

UK Gambling Commission accuses Meta of ignoring illegal gambling ads

Britain’s Gambling Commission has accused Meta of failing to act against illegal online casinos advertising across Facebook and Instagram, alleging the company has continued to profit from criminal activity. Speaking at the ICE Barcelona trade show, the regulator’s executive director Tim Miller, rejected Meta’s claim that it only became aware of such adverts after being notified, describing that assertion as “simply false”. Miller added that, "If we can find them then so can Meta. They simply choose not to look."

He warned that Meta’s approach risked giving the impression the company was prepared to turn a blind eye and continue accepting advertising revenue from criminals and scammers until forced to intervene. In response, Meta said it enforces strict policies on gambling advertising and removes any ads that breach its rules once they are identified.

ByteDance challenges Alibaba with AI-powered cloud push

ByteDance is mounting an aggressive expansion into China’s cloud computing market, looking to capitalise on its AI capabilities and reduce its reliance on consumer-facing apps. The group has rapidly scaled up Volcano Engine, its enterprise cloud business, by expanding its sales efforts and undercutting rivals on pricing, according to employees, customers and competitors who spoke with the FT. The push is shaking up a multibillion-dollar sector long dominated by Alibaba, Tencent and Huawei, with ByteDance pitching corporate clients on AI-driven products built on its vast data reserves and computing infrastructure.

The strategy is already yielding results in the fast-growing AI segment of the market. ByteDance accounted for nearly 13% of China’s AI cloud services revenue in the first half of last year, worth around USD$390m (£288.6m), compared with Alibaba’s 23%.