TikTok and America’s relationship has been a bit rocky for some time. Being removed at one stage from the App and Google Play stores. Now, it seems they’ve made a mends. It looks like the US will now be able to take advantage of live shopping though TikTok.
TikTok are currently on the hunt for partners who can offer live shopping within the US. Their aim is to get this new feature launched over the coming months. The platform have been discussing options with a Californian company – aiming to provide a structure for online shopping, live on TikTok. It will allow companies, creators and brands to sell their products through videos on the platform.
TalkShopLive who are the California based company will take 10% commission from sellers. This percentage will be covered by TikTok to begin with though it seems. The platform covering the selling fees will be in a bid to try and win over brands and creators and get them using the new feature. Nothing has been finalised yet, but it doesn’t seem like either company will want to wait around because there are great money opportunities for both parties.
The video sharing platform has had an ecommerce feature for some time now. Partnering with Shopify, they’ve allowed accounts to integrate their products into catalogues and sell within the platform. Also, they’ve been great in providing brands and creators the tools they need to monetise across their app. Running adverts and partnering with other creatives to help sell their products has really helped some small businesses get up and running.
Live shopping on TikTok has been accessible in the UK since 2021. It became the first market outside of Asia to test this feature. With the growth that has followed, it seems the video platform wanted to spread this to even more markets. Especially ones as huge as America. Despite the growth being huge, the UK market didn’t match the company’s expectations for just how much it would earn. This seems to be the main reason why they’re looking to move this feature elsewhere.
But, will it go well in the US? Remember, TikTok and America’s relationship is nothing short of a brother-sister relationship. By this, we mean, they’re constantly finding faults and disagreeing. TikTok has been removed from app stores in the US previously, and at one point it was almost completely banned. Officials within the country have concerned about privacy settings and data sharing with the app. So, why would they allow live shopping to come to the platform? Surely, that’s sharing private information once again?
