You must be aware that the dominance of Amazon in the US, especially in the e-commerce space, is such that no one even with a lot of funding have been able to come close to it. Walmart, with its reputation as well as cash, has not been able to touch Amazon’s Gross Merchandise Value even though it has now become the second-largest e-commerce platform in the US. Talking about Amazon and Walmart, we are going to tell you about a new e-commerce platform launching soon in the US that already has billions of customers around the world.
We are talking about the ByteDance-owned TikTok platform which is known for its short-form videos that the people love and spend loads of time creating and viewing them as well. However, did you know that TikTok already runs an e-commerce shop on its platform which is known as TikTok Shop. Well, it is reported that TikTok Shop is going to launch in the US very soon and the idea here is to let people shop for products via its e-commerce shop on livestreams just like we see the trend in South Korea and China, along with other parts of South East Asia.
It is reported that TikTok wants to reach a $20B target in gross merchandise value or GMV by the end of this year. According to sources familiar with the data, TikTok’s current GMV is around $4.4B which means that it has to put in a lot of efforts to reach the target. However, it is worth noting that the company plans to expand its shop in Indonesia where the influencers selling products on live stream have already found a lot of success so it will just be a matter of time. Regarding the looming threat of a ban on TikTok in the US, the company “has proposed a range of measures to address national security concerns in the US, including cordoning off American users’ data and allowing partners like Oracle Corp. to review its technology”. This effort is mainly done by TikTok as its main revenue driver, the ad business, is experiencing a downturn due to the current economic conditions.
