According to people familiar with the matter, ByteDance's TikTok plans to expand its business in the U.S. e-commerce market tenfold to $17.5 billion, which will not only pose a greater threat to the local traditional e-commerce giant Amazon, but also bring greater competitive pressure to its Chinese counterparts (such as Temu and Shein).。

In recent weeks, TikTok's internal meetings have been discussing TikTok Shop's 2024 merchandise sales targets, but it is still possible to continue to change specific business progress later.。

Earlier, some foreign media had revealed that TikTok's total global commodity transactions (GMV) last year was expected to reach about $20 billion, with Southeast Asia contributing most of its sales.。In response, TikTok publicly refuted this claim in a statement, claiming that the media "speculated that the US merchandise sales data is inaccurate."。

To achieve this goal, TikTok announced on January 3 that from April 1, online sellers will increase their store fees, and the proportion of in-app sales fees or commissions will increase to 6%; and from July 1, the proportion will further climb to 8%.。Subsidies for sellers will be limited to best sellers。

Currently, TikTok charges a commission of around 2% per transaction, and foreign media noted that the increased commission is still well below Amazon's charge of around 15% for sellers, but the increase indicates TikTok's decision to generate revenue from its e-commerce platform。

Last December, it was reported that TikTok intends to increase advertising by 50% -150% for U.S. advertising agencies, and its advertising revenue may exceed $30 billion in 2024.。While TikTok expects advertising revenue of around $20 billion in 2023, the U.S. advertising and e-commerce business may generate revenue of around $47.5 billion the following year, close to half of TikTok's projected total global revenue in 2023.。

It is clear that ByteDance is planning to expand its e-commerce model to the world.。As of December last year, TikTok's Southeast Asia GMV had exceeded $13 billion, of which Indonesia exceeded $4 billion and Thailand was around $3.5 billion.。

In September last year, TikTok Shop officially landed in the U.S. market; in November, driven by "Black Friday" and "Cyber Monday," more than 5 million new U.S. users poured into TikTok to place orders.。During this period, TikTok provided free shipping services and related subsidies for commodity delivery anchors.。

For some time now, more and more Americans have become accustomed to shopping on Chinese e-commerce apps, including Shein and Temu.。Unlike these two peers, TikTok uses "online entertainment + impulse shopping" as its sales model, allowing users to buy goods while browsing apps, and with its social media influence and the viral spread of entertainment videos, it has considerable user stickiness.。As of now, TikTok has about 1.500 million users。

Now, the company is looking to expand sales in the United States and Latin America, and plans to launch an e-commerce business in the next few months, but it is not clear what specific sales targets it has set.。

According to the news, ByteDance's total revenue increased by 30% year-on-year to more than $110 billion in 2023, and is expected to surpass its social media competitors Meta (expected to be $133 billion) and Tencent (expected to be $86 billion), of which TikTok's e-commerce business is the magic weapon for ByteDance's growth.。