We are understimating TikTok.
TikTok is generally thought of as a propaganda platform, a place where teenagers get their heads filled up with bullshit and that's it.
But, it is much more than that and people are not seeing it.
TikTok is a threat to Facebook, we all know that.
But, did you know that TIkTok is a threat to Amazon?
How about Google? No, I'm not talking about Google-owned Youtube. I'm saying TikTok is an actual business threat to Google.
Let me explain how:
People are using TikTok as a search engine for both information (over Google) and products (over Amazon).
Think about it.
You go to a new city and want to know what to do.
By searching that city on TikTok, you will be able to see information-dense video showing you where to go and what to do and you can use your people-based intuition to quickly get a sense if the content you see is REAL because it's a video with a person instead of a blogpost (that may have been written by AI).
And the same thing is happening for products too.
People are searching for "best plush animal" on TikTok and, again, instead of seeing a sea of Chinese brands on Amazon (Chinese brands are banned from TikTok — yes, really) or a bullshit blogpost with Amazon affiliate links, they are seeing real products reviewed by real people on TikTok.
The authenticity and the speed of consumption (you can quickly swipe through videos) on TikTok's video format is just much higher than what you can get via Google or Amazon.
And Tiktok is vertically integrating.
You can purchase the products you see in TikTok with one click, they make it so easy.
And it's working.
Right now my company's warehouse's order queue has more orders from TikTok than we have from Walmart, eBay, and our Shopify websites combined.
What's wild is that these sales are not coming from videos on TikTok. 95% of our sales on TikTok are coming from search.
Finally, there is one more reason why TikTok is a threat.
They are executing much faster.
If you're American, you're not going to want to hear this but business in China runs at another, higher speed and Tiktok is bringing this speed to how they iterate and improve the TikTok platform and marketplace, with innovations that we as foreigners copy from China instead of the other way around.
Of course all this doesn't matter in the US if TikTok is ultimately banned or weaked by a forced sale.
But, if it's not banned or sold, watch out Facebook, Amazon, Google...TikTok is coming.
