Shein and Amazon Are Both Good for the Ad Business

If you’re a fashion plate on a budget, you’re probably a fan of Shein, known for selling ultracheap and trendy clothes. By all accounts, it’s popular with the kids. As we scooped today, the Singapore-based online store’s global revenue surged 40% in the first three quarters of this year, which means its revenue is now bigger than that of another fast-fashion retailer, H&M. We’ve no doubt that Shein’s investors, including Sequoia Capital and General Atlantic, love the company. Chances are there’s another group of fans over at Meta Platforms, the owner of Facebook and Instagram. Meta appears to be a major beneficiary of Shein’s ad spending—and the money that Amazon spends on ads in response.

It’s no secret that merchants are a big advertising category for Meta, something that was particularly the case during the pandemic-inspired online shopping boom. While that trend reversed starting in late 2021 and through last year, depressing Meta’s ad business, this year has seen a rebound. Meta, which has reported steadily improving ad revenues through 2023, reported in each quarter that online commerce was its biggest contributor to ad growth, particularly from what it calls “China advertisers” looking for new customers in markets like North America and Brazil. Meta doesn’t identify those advertisers, but Shein—founded in China, although now based in Singapore—is likely in that group, along with others like Temu.