By Leah Montebello
TikTok has called in tech start-ups to boost its ecommerce operations in a desperate attempt to diversify revenue streams.
According to initial reports from the Financial Times, TikTok’s parent firm Bytedance has been working with start-ups like ChannelEngine, TalkShopLive and YunExpress to get its social commerce offering off the ground globally.
Social commerce or shopping is where users can buy and sell items within the social media app.
Whilst the trend has experienced huge success in China, it has struggled to rally momentum in Europe and the US.
TikTok Shop, which launched last year in the UK and south-east Asia, has been met with a number of obstacles – including reports of staff burnout and a lack of sales.
According to reports from the FT, ByteDance, which owns both TikTok and Douyin, has outsourced some operations to boost the ecommerce arm.
It also comes after reports that TikTok cut its global revenue targets for 2022 by at least 20 per cent in September after it struggled to keep up momentum.
Head of investment at interactive investor Victoria Scholar toldCity A.M. that although Facebook has been at odds with Bytedance-owned TikTok to nab the attention of Gen Z, the latter’s “overconfidence has led to a spending problem that has got out of control”.
TikTok were not immediately available to comment on these reports.
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