Following a brief shutdown of TikTok’s US offering over the weekend [18 – 19 January 2025], the social media site has been given a reprieve by incoming US President Donald Trump.
Trump, who had previously backed the ban, issued an executive order to allow more time for a deal to be made. TikTok then said that it was in the process of “restoring service”.
While predominately a short-form video platform, the app’s introduction of TikTok Shop enables consumers around the world to do more than just discover products. Some, 43% of GenZ shoppers in the US start product searches on TikTok. This is in comparison to just 19% of the overall population.
TikTok’s audience skews towards GenZ with 40% aged between 18 and 24. In the UK alone TikTok has more than 20mn users and that figure continues to increase, as does the length of time the audience spends on the platform. The average user spends 70 minutes per day engaging with videos. This captive audience is a huge draw for brands targeting younger generations and is particularly effective for cosmetics and beauty brands.
The introduction of TikTok Shop was an obvious next step for the social platform enabling already engaged consumers to discover products and buy them without having to leave the app.
In 2023, TikTok made it easier for brands to connect their ecommerce and social channels through the launch of its TikTok for Shopify app. This gives Shopify merchants the capability to create TikTok ad campaigns, synchronise their product catalogue and sell products through infeed videos and live broadcasts.
TikTok Shop is putting the social platform on a trajectory to becoming a tier one marketplace representing “a paradigm shift in online marketplaces,” according to Sarah Znideric, VP of Global Partnerships at Linnworks. “Its unique approach, coupled with a commitment to ‘community commerce’, positions TikTok as a formidable player in the evolving ecommerce landscape,” she said.
RetailX’s marketplace commentator Paul Skeldon agrees. As he explains in the RetailX European Marketplaces report, “while still dwarfed by Facebook in terms of users numbers, TikTok has seen web visits hit 24bn in the 12 months to October 2023, only just shy of the 29bn seen by Amazon.”
Trump’s administration had previously tried to split its US operation from its Chinese owners – which has a 1% investment from the Chinese government. This didn’t stop’s TikTok growth in the West, with 130 million downloads in the US alone and some two billion worldwide.
With 60% of Gen Z in the US using TikTok and one in three TikTok users who see a product promoted in their feed going on to buy it, the move makes a lot of sense. This approach of offering engagement and endorsement, along with the ability to then go on to buy the product increasingly taps into the growing interest, especially in China, in creating ‘super apps’ that do a wide variety of tasks in one place.
TikTok has been banned already in India, then in April 2024 a new law passed in the States resulted in the US version of the app being removed from app stores and web-hosting services – if its Chinese owner ByteDance did not sell its US operations.
TikTok had argued before the Supreme Court that the law violated free speech protections for its users in the country. The law was passed with support from both Republicans and Democrats in Congress and was upheld unanimously by Supreme Court justices earlier this month.
While Trump intervened on Sunday, it remains unclear if hosting companies such as Google or Apple will continue to support TikTok in the US and whether brands will look to distance themselves from this marketplace opportunity.
This feature harnesses research from the RetailX Global Beauty report, authored by Emma Herrod, and the RetailX European Marketplaces report, authored by Paul Skeldon.
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