Hypothesising Made-in-China’s success in the United States today seems far-fetched. With the two countries fighting on all fronts, including technology, as the Huawei case shows, with the US ban blocking the Shenzhen company’s expansion plans, planning a business between the two countries seems almost like commercial suicide unless there is a giant that can bring the Chinese and Americans together. One like TikTok, for example. The social media company has launched a plan to set up TikTok eCommerce app in the United States, selling products designed and made in China to social app enthusiasts. From clothing to electronic devices to kitchen accessories and leisure items, the plan is to ship from China to American customers who buy from the marketplace via the app and other retailers.
Responsible for the whole supply chain, just like Amazon
At the heart of the virtual project is TikTok Shop Shopping Center (sounds like a typo, but it’s not!), which will allow users to sell and buy goods directly from Lives, videos, creators and brand profiles. Following Amazon’s footsteps, TikTok eCommerce would be responsible for all organisational phases: resale, payments, logistics, product storage and distribution, customer support and after-sales service.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the platform will allow users to return unsold items, while buyers can leave reviews for each product they buy. Ambitious and crucial to understanding the future of TikTok, the project wanted by Zhang Yiming, the 40-year-old founder and owner of ByteDance, aims to increase the total amount of goods transactions on the platform from last year’s $5 billion to $20 billion.
Why US is the most important country for TikTok eCommerce App
There are several reasons why the Chinese app is focusing its efforts in the United States. On the numerical side, the explanation is logical: with over 150 million users, the US is the largest and most profitable market for TikTok. At the same time, however, the country represents the most significant risk to its future success because the rant with the US government has been going on for years.
After repeated pressure from Washington institutions on ByteDance to hand over its US operations to a star-studded company, Montana became the first US state to ban TikTok last May, even though the rule signed by Republican Governor Greg Gianforte is due to come into force on 1 January 2024. The conditional is to be used because the Chinese company immediately opposed the law, which was deemed unconstitutional. After all, it violates the freedom of expression provided for in the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
Beyond the Montana case, it remains that for the United States, TikTok is a threat to national security, mainly because of the possibility of disseminating the personal data of American users to Chinese authorities. A scenario that is no longer likely, since ByteDance itself has confirmed that data transfer and violation of American users’ privacy have occurred in the past. After all, it was precisely for these reasons that TikTok’s marketplace was delayed for a few months, only to be discovered after the company placed a job advertisement for a ‘Global e-Commerce shopping centre operations’.
It is only a matter of time before we see what the TikTok Shop Shopping Centre will look like, not to be confused with the TikTok Shop, with which brands have already been selling their products on the platform for some months.
