TikTok, never giving in, is expanding its global influence far and wide.

Text | Lan Jie

Editor | Qiao Qian

TikTok in the US: Focus on Commercialization and User Retention

More than half of the 75 - day reprieve that TikTok got to avoid being shut down has passed, and its pre - determined fate still seems unchanged. Recently, US President Trump said in a public interview that his government is in contact with four different groups regarding the sale of TikTok.

However, as of now, TikTok has shown no intention of selling its US operations and is working hard to resume and even accelerate its development in the United States.

On January 19 this year, after TikTok was removed from the Apple and Google app stores, although it was restored within a day, it has not been re - listed in the app stores, and its live - streaming function was also unavailable for some time. Now, all of TikTok's functions have gradually returned to normal, and the official announced on February 14 that the TikTok app can be downloaded from major app stores.

In addition, while setting an aggressive sales target for 2025, TikTok is also accelerating its commercialization process.

Recently, there have been widespread rumors in the industry that TikTok will fully switch to using GMV Max (an AI - powered advertising integration tool launched by TikTok Shop) in June, and the manual advertising methods such as LSA (Live Shopping Ads), PSA (Mall Shopping Ads), and VSA (Video Shopping Ads) will be suspended.

According to sources close to TikTok, the details of this information are questionable, but the trend is certain, that is, TikTok will pay more attention to GMV Max. And the overall effect of GMV Max is much better than traditional, more manual - dependent advertising tools.

This is in line with TikTok's relatively aggressive commercialization goals in the US market.

TikTok has sufficient organic traffic, but the advertising effect is unstable. Therefore, merchants and even brand owners are not very willing to invest in advertising on TikTok. Shifting more towards GMV Max can help merchants lower the advertising threshold and increase GMV.

This kind of news is good for the platform and large - scale merchants, but not so friendly for small and medium - sized merchants. Because using GMV Max for advertising requires more materials, relies on past transaction data, and often requires high - frequency product testing and rapid new product launches, which poses a challenge to the merchants' supply chains.

When the work of advertising operators is replaced by AI, the remaining variable is content output. This forces merchants to put more effort into producing high - quality content and also promotes merchants' actions in influencer sales and live - streaming.

To some extent, this reflects another thing that TikTok is currently doing, that is, improving the platform's content quality and enhancing user retention.

A host of TikTok Shop in the US told 36Kr that recently TikTok has paid more attention to the interaction data in the live - streaming rooms, while it used to focus more on conversions. Specifically, in the past, a large - order transaction in the live - streaming room would result in more traffic promotion, but now it doesn't. In contrast, more popularity data such as likes and comments are needed. "When the interaction is high, the traffic promotion will definitely continue to increase." The official signals from TikTok also clearly put forward the requirements for better content and corresponding rectification suggestions.

The large and active young user group has always been a powerful asset for TikTok to fight against the US government's ban. Just like in March last year, when the divestment bill was introduced, TikTok chose to send pop - up windows to its 170 million users, calling on them to call members of Congress to demand the revocation of the bill, so that the phones of the congressmen's offices were overwhelmed.

However, in January this year, even though TikTok was only removed from the app stores for less than a day, it still made people realize that a TikTok ban could happen. Therefore, until now, influencers on the US TikTok platform are still calling on their fans to migrate to other platforms. Merchants and hosts can clearly feel the anxiety pervading the platform, which will directly affect user retention.

In fact, the risk that TikTok is facing in the US this time is almost the highest since it entered the US market. Against this background, TikTok is also accelerating the process of "putting eggs in different baskets".

Put Eggs in Different Baskets

If TikTok in the US ultimately cannot avoid being banned, Southeast Asia will become the focus of TikTok's globalization. Therefore, in the new year, TikTok is also accelerating its expansion in Southeast Asia.

Sunny World, the official agency for TikTok in Thailand, told 36Kr that after the Chinese New Year, the customer service staff of TikTok Shop in China have become significantly busier, with more meetings and more frequent contacts with merchants to expand the Southeast Asian market. They even found the supplier of a merchant, which is a very small supplier with only two factory facades and no more than seven or eight workers.

In addition, TikTok One, TikTok's official AI creator connection platform (the overseas version of "Xingtu"), has started internal testing in Thailand. This also reflects to some extent that influencer - driven sales in the Southeast Asian market have reached a sufficient scale.

However, TikTok also faces many problems in Southeast Asia.

According to Sunny World, low customer unit price and high risks in influencer - driven sales are common problems in Southeast Asia. She said that the products that Thai consumers like can be summarized by two keywords - cheap enough and good - looking enough. Many well - known brands in China have to start from scratch in the Southeast Asian market. Even if they invest a certain amount of marketing expenses locally, cost - effectiveness remains the core selling point that cannot be abandoned - cheap products are often the best - selling.

Lower customer unit prices often mean a lower GMV ceiling and lower growth potential.

In addition, influencer - driven sales contribute significantly to the GMV of TikTok Shop in Southeast Asia. According to data from Yibang Power and FastMoss, in September and October 2024, 20 influencers in TikTok Shop Southeast Asia each achieved a GMV of over one million US dollars. The fan loyalty of local influencers is often higher than that of the platform and brands.

However, local influencers generally have problems such as poor video delivery effects, slow responses, and no awareness of advertising investment. Before communicating with 36Kr, the person - in - charge of Sunny World had just dealt with an incident where an influencer breached the contract. The influencer deleted a popular video that was being promoted because the agreed commission had not arrived in time, without any negotiation with Sunny World.

Not to mention, TikTok also faces regulatory crises in Indonesia, its largest market in Southeast Asia. In 2023, Indonesia removed TikTok Shop from the app stores on the grounds that social e - commerce platforms such as TikTok Shop had an impact on local small and medium - sized enterprises and traditional markets.

The latest news is that TikTok is also expanding globally in Europe, Latin America and other regions. In 2025, TikTok will launch its e - commerce business in five countries: Italy, Germany, France, Japan, and Brazil. 36Kr checked the TikTok Shop Seller Center and found that merchants can now choose to register on the Italian, German, and French sites. In February this year, TikTok Shop also launched in Mexico. Undoubtedly, these are also important measures for TikTok to hedge against the risk of losing the US market.

However, none of these markets can compare with the US. Losing the US market would still be the most painful blow for TikTok. Not only because the US is the world's largest advertising and retail market, but also because the US is directly linked to TikTok's globalization capabilities.

The e - commerce retail market in the US is very mature, with a large number of online consumers willing to pay high prices. An e - commerce service provider in Southeast Asia told 36Kr that since this year, almost no US merchants have wanted to switch to the Southeast Asian market due to the ban because the gap is too large. She gave an example: a merchant's product can only be sold for 20 yuan in Southeast Asia, but it can be sold for 12 US dollars (about 87 yuan) in the US, more than four times the price.

According to 36Kr, the GMV of TikTok Shop in the US last year was about 8 billion US dollars, less than half of the expected target. Even so, the US market contributed one - fifth of TikTok's global e - commerce share, and 2024 was only the second year of TikTok Shop's launch in the US.