Last year, TikTok Shop officially launched in the US. It’s the latest commercial venture from ByteDance Ltd., the parent company that owns the social media app. By creating its own marketplace — where users can find and buy products without leaving the app — TikTok hopes to compete with giants like Amazon. And TikTok is not being shy about its ambitions: according to Bloomberg’s reporting, it aims to grow the size of its US e-commerce business to $17.5 billion this year.

Small vendors like Scott McIntosh have been invited to TikTok Shop and encouraged to start live streaming their products, a tactic that has proven wildly popular in Southeast Asian TikTok Shop markets. Although skeptical of TikTok as a sales platform at first, McIntosh is now a believer. Will TikTok be able to win over the rest of the American e-commerce market?

Last year, TikTok Shop officially launched in the US. It’s the latest commercial venture from ByteDance Ltd., the parent company that owns the social media app. By creating its own marketplace — where users can find and buy products without leaving the app — TikTok hopes to compete with giants like Amazon. And TikTok is not being shy about its ambitions: according to Bloomberg’s reporting, it aims to grow the size of its US e-commerce business to $17.5 billion this year.
Small vendors like Scott McIntosh have been invited to TikTok Shop and encouraged to start live streaming their products, a tactic that has proven wildly popular in Southeast Asian TikTok Shop markets. Although skeptical of TikTok as a sales platform at first, McIntosh is now a believer. Will TikTok be able to win over the rest of the American e-commerce market?

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The Big Take from Bloomberg News brings you inside what’s shaping the world's economies with the smartest and most informed business reporters around the world. The context you need on the stories that can move markets. Every afternoon.

Big Take

TikTok Made Me Buy It: Inside TikTok Shop

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