FP StaffOct 13, 2022 12:47:47 IST
ByteDance, the company behind the banned social media platform TikTok apparently wants to take on Amazon in its most significant business operation. TikTok is preparing to launch its live shopping services in the US, after which, they will open up the service in some other countries.
TikTok will be following Amazon’s footsteps and set up an e-commerce platform and fulfilment centres.
In the last few weeks, TikTok has posted a series of job listings that mark TikTok’s first major move into US’ e-commerce market. ByteDance and TikTok aim to build fulfilment centres, similar to the ones that Amazon owns and operates.
Job listings for “Fulfillment By TikTok Shop” seek to staff key roles like logistics solutions managers or operations research engineers to assist TikTok in building international warehousing, customs clearings, and supply chain systems that support domestic e-commerce efforts in the US and cross-border e-commerce efforts.
TikTok and ByteDance have already poached a number of key people from Amazon, as well as Meta. The social media company is seeking staff in major US cities where it already has offices, like Los Angeles and Seattle. One report estimates that at least 170 people joined TikTok or ByteDance the last year, who were previously working for Amazon, Microsoft, or Meta.
In certain countries, TikTok already has TikTok Shop a platform where mainly content creators can sell stuff. In the US, a country which TikTok sees as its biggest market for its e-commerce operations, TikTok already has a shopping feature in the works facilitated by Shopify. However, it seems that.
TikTok has bigger plans in mind to potentially move beyond modest aspirations of facilitating sales for influencers and actually become an online retail giant.
By establishing its own US-based fulfilment centres, reports suggest that TikTok could explode a whole new revenue stream and become a preferred online shopping destination for its broad, young audience.
Although TikTok’s US fulfilment centres may be ByteDance’s newest idea to expand into US e-commerce, it’s clearly just beginning to break ground on this project. However, Amazon’s success story shows how quickly a company can build an empire once it’s connected to a broad customer base online. Within four years of launching, Amazon went from mostly selling books in the US to dominating global e-commerce.
ByteDance is clearly following a similar route. They are even starting out with books, just like Amazon did. TikTok’s popular #BookTok community has often been credited for a spike in the sales of print romance books this year in the US, so it makes sense for TikTok to follow in Amazon’s footsteps and want to move beyond just selling books for other retailers.
