The shopping app that proved people will buy anything if it's cheap enough — and also proved that "anything" includes a lot of garbage. Wish was the most downloaded shopping app on Earth in 2018, then imploded so spectacularly that France banned it. The stock dropped 98% from its IPO. Acquired by Singapore's Qoo10 for $173 million — basically a rounding error compared to its $14 billion peak valuation. A masterclass in how a brilliant distribution strategy (social media-style feed + rock-bottom prices) means nothing without product quality.
Founded
2010
HQ
San Francisco, CA
Total Raised
$1.6B
Founder
Piotr Szulczewski, Danny Zhang
Status
Public (NASDAQ: WISH → acquired by Qoo10 in 2024 for ~$173M) — acquired at a 98% discount from IPO peak
Website
www.wish.comTHE ORIGIN STORY
Piotr Szulczewski, a former Google engineer, and Danny Zhang launched Wish in 2010 as a visual discovery feed — basically Pinterest for shopping. They noticed that users were obsessively browsing unbelievably cheap products from Chinese sellers.
The app's feed algorithm (borrowed from social media) was addictive: scroll through $2 phone cases, $5 dresses, and $8 Bluetooth headphones. Wish became the most downloaded shopping app in the world in 2018, with over 100 million monthly active users.
It was the anti-Amazon: no Prime, no two-day shipping, no quality guarantees — just astonishingly cheap stuff.
WHAT THEY ACTUALLY DO
Discount e-commerce marketplace connecting Chinese manufacturers directly with budget-conscious consumers worldwide. Wish's model: strip out every middleman between a Chinese factory and a consumer, and sell products for 60-90% less than Amazon.
Revenue comes from seller commissions (15% of sale price), promoted listings, and Wish's logistics service (which handles shipping from China). The trade-off: products are cheap but take 2-4 weeks to arrive and quality is...
inconsistent.
THE PRODUCTS
Wish Marketplace (ultra-discount products from Chinese manufacturers), Wish Clips (short-form video shopping content), Wish Express (faster shipping option), Wish Standards (quality verification program), and Wish Local (brick-and-mortar pickup locations for online orders).
HOW THEY GREW
Wish tried several pivots: Wish Local (partnering with physical stores for pickup), faster shipping programs (Wish Express), and verified quality programs. But the fundamental challenge remains: when your brand is built on "so cheap it's suspicious," building trust is nearly impossible.
New CEO Vijay Talwar (2023) is attempting a turnaround focused on fewer, higher-quality sellers and improved logistics.
THE HARD PART
Product quality and trust. Wish became a meme for terrible product quality — "Wish vs Reality" comparison videos went viral.
Customers would order a dress that looked stunning in photos and receive something unrecognizable. Shipping times of 2-4 weeks from China felt archaic compared to Amazon Prime.
After the IPO in 2020, the stock dropped 90% as user growth reversed and the company couldn't solve its quality crisis. France temporarily banned the app after a government study found 95% of tested products failed safety standards.
MONEY TRAIL
Series A
2013 · Led by GGV Capital
$19M raised
Series H
2017 · Led by General Atlantic, Temasek
$500M raised
IPO
2020 · Led by Public offering on NASDAQ
$1.1B raised
Acquisition
2024 · Led by Acquired by Qoo10
$173M raised
WHO BACKED THEM
DST Global, GGV Capital, Founders Fund, Temasek Holdings, and General Atlantic were among Wish's investors. The company raised $1.6 billion before its 2020 IPO.
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