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The most highly popular application in this era comes to “TikTok” DId you know that TikTok also has a sale platform called “TikTok Shop” for online sellers to make money and gain a lot of profit. Recently, according to CNBC news reports, TikTok Shop is becoming a major competitor for major e-commerce companies in Southeast Asia such as “Shoppy” and “Lasada.”
TikTok Shop is an e-commerce marketplace on TikTok, an application with more than 689 million users worldwide and over 35.80 million Thai accounts (from the statistics of 2022) TikTok Shop is an online platform that allows merchants, brands, and creatives to display or sell products to users. In 2022, TikTok Shop also expanded its business into six Southeast Asia countries which are Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Thailand. According to market research firm Insider Intelligence, the number of TikTok users in Southeast Asia is at 135 million in May 2023.
According to a survey conducted by online retail analyst firm Cube Asia, the consumers who use TikTok Shop reduced their spending on Shopee by 51%, Lazada by 45%, and offline stores by 38% in Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines.
The Information, a technology news agency, reported by citing internal data that total online sales of TikTok Shop products more than quadrupled and reached $4.4 billion in the Southeast region in 2022. There is also a report that TikTok aims to reach $12 billion in total online sales by 2023.
However, the current total online sales of TikTok Shop are considered to be only a small percentage compared to Shopee and Lazada. The information shows that Shopee’s total online sales were $73.5 billion in 2022, while Lazada’s total online sales were $21 billion between September 2020 and September 2021.
However, Sean Yang, an analyst at Blue Lotus Research Institute, said in a report by Sea Group and Shoppy owners, that TikTok is growing rapidly in Southeast Asian countries. TikTok’s total online sales in 2023 are estimated to reach 20% of Shopee sales. Mr. Yang has recommended that Shopee increase sales and marketing from April 2023.
TikTok’s spokesperson told CNBC that TikTok Shop continues to grow rapidly as large and small users are using TikTok to find large customers. TikTok is focusing on developing the TikTok Shop in Southeast Asia.
Although TikTok has relatively fewer users than Facebook and Instagram, what’s surprising is that most users spend the most time with the TikTok platform. This may be because TikTok has different features and strategies from other social networks, both in its easy use, just use your finger to swipe to see more video clips, and with the algorithms that look like to hypnotize users. TikTok often draws similar clips or live streams up to your feed repeatedly until users see the product every day which makes it easier for users to buy that product. This may be why in the future e-commerce platforms that may overtake Shopee and Lazada could be TikTok Shop.
