According to insiders, TikTok, a subsidiary of ByteDance, has set a radical expansion goal: to expand its U.S. e-commerce business by 10 times to $17.5 billion this year, which will pose a greater threat to Amazon.
TikTok's ambitious goal is not only to expand its threat to the traditional American e-commerce giant Amazon, but also to create greater competitive pressure on its Chinese counterparts, such as Temu and Shein under Pinduoduo.
TikTok plans to vigorously expand its US e-commerce business
According to sources, during internal meetings in recent weeks, ByteDance discussed TikTok Shop's business goals for the US market in 2024, which may still change depending on the development of the business.
According to foreign media reports, TikTok's global e-commerce product value was expected to reach approximately $20 billion last year, with the Southeast Asian market contributing the majority of its sales.
Two insiders revealed that the company is currently seeking to expand its sales in the United States and Latin America, and plans to promote its e-commerce business in the coming months.
ByteDance is clearly planning to export its e-commerce model to the world. Last September, TikTok officially announced the launch of TikTok Shop in the US market. Last November, driven by transactions on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, over 5 million new American customers made purchases on TikTok.
TikTok currently has approximately 150 million users in the United States.
Americans are becoming increasingly accustomed to shopping on Chinese e-commerce applications, including popular fashion websites Shein and Temu under Pinduoduo. Since the advertisement aired on the Super Bowl in February last year, Temu's popularity has rapidly skyrocketed.
Unlike Temu and Shein, which mainly rely on large discounts to attract users, TikTok relies more on its social media influence and the appeal of viral videos to attract buyers, thus potentially having stronger user stickiness.
ByteDance's 2023 revenue has surpassed Tencent's
It is currently unclear what sales targets TikTok Shop has set for global or other markets.
In Indonesia, TikTok acquired Tokopedia, the e-commerce division of GoTo Group, for $1.5 billion. After months of review by the local government, the company was able to restart its online retail services.
According to media reports, in 2023, the total revenue of ByteDance will increase by 30% to more than $110 billion year on year, of which the development of Tik Tok e-commerce business is becoming the growth engine of bytes.
This also means that ByteDance's revenue in 2023 may have surpassed Tencent and approached Meta - Tencent expects revenue to be around $86 billion in 2023, while Meta expects revenue to be $133 billion in 2023.