In the United States, TikTok's biggest rival has emerged.

When TikTok Shop in the US was caught up in a ban storm, a US-based platform called Whatnot is rapidly rising through a different live e-commerce approach.

Whatnot is a live shopping platform that has quickly gathered a group of highly engaged users through its live limited-time auction model. Initially, the platform focused on collectibles such as trendy toys, trading cards, and sports cards, and then rapidly expanded into areas like women's clothing and sports shoes.

Currently, Whatnot has made it into the top 15 free apps on the US App Store and ranks first among shopping apps. Official data shows that users spend an average of 80 minutes on the app every day, more than on platforms like Instagram and TikTok.

In 2024, Whatnot's total merchandise volume was $3 billion, and it is predicted that the total merchandise volume in 2025 will exceed $6 billion, about twice that of 2024.

In contrast, according to a report by Momentum Works, in 2024, TikTok Shop's GMV in the US was about $9 billion. Short videos accounted for 58% of the total sales, the app store accounted for 32%, and live streaming only accounted for 10%, that is, $900 million.

Since its establishment in 2019, Whatnot has completed 7 rounds of financing. The latest one was in January this year, when Whatnot received $265 million in Series E financing, with a valuation close to $5 billion.

Different from TikTok Shop, which relies on algorithm-driven and hit product logic, Whatnot has carved out a completely different live e-commerce path in the US market with its "live auction + niche culture" model. So, which live streaming method is more suitable for the US market?

1. What is Whatnot?

Whatnot was originally a traditional platform for selling Funko Pop dolls and sports shoes. Its founders are all product managers by background and have worked at Facebook and the sneaker trading platform GOAT.

At the beginning of its establishment, Whatnot's goal was to create a more efficient online trading place for collectors. Users could list, browse, and buy collectibles.

In 2020, Whatnot reached a crucial turning point. The founders found that collectors often conducted "semi-live auctions" on Instagram through comments: viewers bid in the comment section, the seller manually confirmed the highest bid, and then completed the payment and delivery via private messages. This inefficient but highly engaging behavior exposed a market gap - collectors in the niche community craved the experience of "real-time interaction + instant transaction".

So, in 2020, Whatnot launched its live streaming function. It also introduced the "Sudden Death Auction", which has now become the platform's signature: A very short countdown is set for the product. Each time there is a new bid, the countdown resets until no one bids anymore, and the auction ends immediately. The last bidder wins. The tense atmosphere and interactivity of the auction greatly increased user participation and the transaction rate.

From July 2020 to July 2021, Whatnot's total sales increased by more than 200 times.

Founder Grant recalled that when he approached investors in the early days, one of them said, "You must know a lot about live shopping in China." But in fact, they knew nothing about live shopping or the Chinese market. Only after that did they start to do some research on Chinese live e-commerce and realized that this project might be very popular.

However, different from Chinese live e-commerce, which relies on short videos, this platform has no short videos, and the vast majority of sales are made directly through live streaming. Moreover, most of Whatnot's hosts are players in the field. They establish a deep connection with their fans through real-time Q&A, unboxing shows, auctions, and even controlling the atmosphere. The viewers are not casual fans recommended by algorithms but niche users who visit repeatedly.

Take Seth Chandler, the owner of a coin shop in San Francisco, as an example. He only has 30,000 followers and mainly sells products such as Liberty Head nickels and Morgan silver dollars. The number of viewers in a single live stream reaches 80 - 150, and the sales per hour can reach $10,000 - $20,000. His weekly sales on Whatnot are as high as $100,000, and he earned $4 million through the platform in 2023.

After 2022, Whatnot began to gradually expand its product categories, from the initial collectibles such as Funko Pop dolls, sports cards, and coins to new niches such as electronics, luxury bags, and women's clothing. Currently, it covers more than 140 categories.

Women's clothing is the fastest-growing category on Whatnot. Since its launch in 2022, the sales have increased by 7 times. Currently, there is a women's clothing seller called Circle City OC with monthly sales exceeding $1 million. This merchant often holds clearance sales starting at $1. Through live clearance sales and sudden limited-time products, its monthly sales exceed $1 million.

"What's really exciting about Whatnot is that they've combined the essence of entertainment, shopping, and community to reimagine the business experience for sellers and buyers," a partner at the venture capital firm Greycroft once said of Whatnot's live streaming model.

2. Will live e-commerce in the US be as popular as in China?

In the US live e-commerce market, TikTok Shop and Whatnot represent two completely different growth logics.

TikTok follows the successful model of Douyin, which emphasizes short video product promotion + conversion and highly relies on algorithmic recommendation. User relationships are more inclined to one-time conversion, lacking social precipitation. Its model is suitable for content creators and brands, which require pre-content preparation, advertising investment, and competition for exposure.

Whatnot, on the contrary, has no short videos. Instead, it focuses on the "live auction" model, which is more like a combination of "online auction + live show". It has a low threshold but a fast pace. It also does not rely on algorithmic distribution but on community-driven + host persona.

Users don't just come to buy things but to interact with the host and like-minded people, share knowledge, and experience the fun of auctions. On average, users spend more than 80 minutes on Whatnot every day, higher than the average 52 minutes that US users spend on the TikTok platform.

Whatnot's founder once said that although the entertainment and transaction search features of the app played a certain role in its success, he believes that the most important thing about the app is its community function. "The real key to Whatnot's success lies in people," he said. "The reason you go back to a store is that you know the customers of the store or the regulars."

From this perspective, Whatnot is more like the private domain on WeChat.

This difference has also raised a long-standing question in the industry: Will live e-commerce in the US be as popular as in China?

Many people are pessimistic about this, believing that live shopping is culturally incompatible with Western consumers. A considerable number of Chinese consumers have already regarded live shopping as a form of entertainment consumption. Many people enter the live stream room without a clear shopping purpose but "watch and buy" like watching a variety show.

Most American consumers' shopping mindset is more "task-driven". They are used to the logic of "search - compare prices - place an order" rather than staying in a live stream for a long time waiting for their favorite products to appear. Shopping is more of a task to be completed efficiently rather than an entertainment consumption.

In addition, the ability of live e-commerce to reach a scale of hundreds of billions of dollars in China largely depends on the flexibility and cost advantages of the Chinese supply chain. In recent years, the flexible supply chain has been booming. Brands and factories can adjust production capacity and launch new products within a few days or even hours to handle the surge in orders brought by live streaming. The US domestic supply chain is longer and heavier and can hardly bear the pressure on inventory and fulfillment caused by the "surge in orders" from live streaming. This is why the main merchants on TikTok Shop in the US are still Chinese sellers.

In terms of scale, the gap between China and the US is obvious. According to data from Grand View Research, the US market size reached $12 billion in 2023 and is expected to reach $78 billion by 2030.

In contrast, live e-commerce in China has been growing rapidly since 2016. In 2023, the sales of live e-commerce were close to $682.5 billion, and it is expected that this growth trend will continue. By 2026, the market size will reach $1.11 trillion. At the same time, the proportion of live streaming sales in China's e-commerce GMV increased from 17.9% in 2021 to 31.9% in 2023, almost doubling in just two years.

That is to say, even after 5 more years of development, live e-commerce in the US will only be a fraction of the scale of live e-commerce in China.

However, the rise of Whatnot and the rapid growth of TikTok Shop in categories such as beauty and fast fashion all show that there is a real demand for live e-commerce among US users. In the future, the US live e-commerce market may not copy China's "live streaming with goods" model but will explore a path that is more in line with local culture and consumption habits.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Growth Workshop". The author is Xiang Qing, and the editor is Jia Xin. It is published by 36Kr with permission.