OpEd: TikTok is a Threat, but Not in the Way We've Been Thinking

It's about cross-border commerce, and the government needs to step up

This OpEd got rejected from The New York Times (not gunning for them, but I think it’s important for us to talk about rejection openly - taking inspiration from Amelia Diamond’s Substack), but I am so happy to have a trusted friend and platform in Glossy and Jill Manoff to talk about the most existential threat to American Dynamism and our biggest tech companies: TikTok Shops.

To break it down if you don’t know about Shops: TikTok Shops officially launched a little over a week ago, after a summer of beta testing, to allow users to transact (check out) directly on the platform. They also launched a Shopify integration and a FBT (Fulfilled by TikTok) facility in the US. This is a HUGE deal, as TikTok is the fastest growing social media app in the world and has over 150 million US users alone.

The ramifications of non-US content turning on commerce are far-reaching for our country’s largest marketplaces and technology companies. It’s already happening in Indonesia - in December 2022 Shopee’s revenues were down 40% after TikTok Shops launched there, and the government has since stepped in.

Granted, the live shopping conventions of Asia are not necessarily 1:1 in the states, most notably we don’t have celebrity talent for live shopping, but we do like Chinese goods, as evidenced by the meteoric rise of Temu and Shein.

What does it all mean? I break it down below.

Special shoutout to Ammar Moiz (of Mayple) for debating with me and to Renee Russo (Glow Labs) for introducing me to her mom (!!) for an interview as a beta use.

https://www.glossy.co/fashion/op-ed-the-real-tiktok-threat-is-in-shops-and-cross-border-commerce/