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Music discovery is a significant draw for TikTok users, with 27% of US adults specifically citing the platform as a way to hear new music they haven鈥檛 encountered before. A Kantar study found that 26% of UK Gen Z users use the platform in a similar manner.

UK referral traffic from TikTok content to retailer websites grew by 378% between January 2022 and May 2023, according to a June 2023 report from Adobe. Getting appy: 鈥淓specially in the UK, retailers have digitized their loyalty programs, launching them through apps,鈥� Perkins said.

Microsoft, Oracle, and billionaire investors are vying for a TikTok buyout, with ByteDance keeping a stake. The deal could reshape TikTok鈥檚 data security and advertising model.

TikTok Shop is far from DOA, but early reports suggest its rollout hasn鈥檛 been easy. As TikTok works to build its livestreaming and in-app commerce business in the US, including by restructuring its commerce division, US merchants must decide whether the investment is worth it.

Citing security concerns, the bill now goes to Gov. Greg Gianforte, who banned TikTok on state-owned devices. TikTok is pushing back, but other states could accelerate all-out bans.

At the moment, TikTok Shops available to anyone in the UK, as long as they live in the UK and they're over 18. There are three shopping formats. So, that's live shopping, a shoppable short videos, and a product showcase, which is essentially a catalog of products, and you can sell through TikTok as a seller, creator, or partner. Sellers need to sign up as a merchant with TikTok and creators.

Some companies like British retailer Asos have opted to focus on loyalty programs instead in the hopes of driving recurring sales. Others have been pulled to Meta platforms and TikTok, leaning on their large audiences and shoppable commerce features instead.

TikTok sister app Douyin is a livestream behemoth in China, where nearly 40% of internet users also engage in livestream shopping, according to our forecast. But in the US, the format hasn鈥檛 caught on in the same way.

Carina, are we singing similar trends in the UK? Carina Perkins:. Yeah, we're seeing a similar trend in the UK, specifically TikTok is playing a really important role in CPG product discovery for Gen Z. There's a really big food community on TikTok. People sharing recipes and new products, and we've seen a couple of food brands go viral.

On today鈥檚 episode, host Bill Fisher is joined by our analysts Paul Briggs and Man-Chung Cheung and forecasting writer Ethan Cramer-Flood to talk about the TikTok bans currently in place around the world. They consider if the pressure building on TikTok in the US could fan out to other countries.

Our latest forecast for social network users in Canada highlights a reshuffling of the top five platforms in 2023. Twitter will fall to fifth place, while TikTok will surge into the No. 3 position.

So on the social media side, we've got TikTok Shop that's arrived in the US now and it's been in the UK for a while. That's driving massive traffic. I think I read one Adobe study that said referral traffic from TikTok content to UK retailer websites grew by 378% between January 2022 and May 2023. So that's huge. Sara Lebow:.

Respondents represented Australia, Canada, the UK, and the US.

On today's podcast episode, in our "Retail Me This, Retail Me That" segment, we discuss the role of the store for the beauty space, Walmart's involvement in this product category, and how TikTok is changing things. Then, for "Pop-Up Rankings," we rank the top three social media trends that have influenced beauty products and how they're marketed. Join our analyst Sara Lebow as she hosts analysts Sky Canaves and Carina Perkins.

TikTok aggressively courts sellers: The company aims to grow its social commerce sales by offering merchants free listings and shipping, along with zero commissions.

50% of Americans support a government ban on TikTok, with higher support among Republicans and older Americans. Continued scrutiny could be TikTok鈥檚 downfall.

Despite its political challenges, TikTok will lead the world in ad revenue growth. TikTok and Mercado Libre will set the pace globally, though at vastly different scales. TikTok faces a ban in the lucrative US market, but unless and until that happens, we foresee continued booming growth for the ByteDance subsidiary.

I don't think we're going to see a sudden huge shift to lots of people completing their purchases on social commerce platforms, but I think it is going to become more common, especially as TikTok shop gains additional sales, because they've got that native checkout in the UK. We're actually quite limited in terms of how we can check out via social platforms.

ByteDance is dead set on building up TikTok Shop in the US: Its aggressive moves to build a robust shopping service could lead to a $500 million loss this year.

As Temu and Shein slow US activity, Europe and the UK are emerging as fallback markets, where both brands are still advertising heavily.

Another US survey, conducted on behalf of VTEX, finds even more striking results, with 45% of respondents participating in a livestream shopping event hosted on marketplaces like Poshmark or Amazon, and 61% shopping on social platforms such as TikTok Shop or YouTube Shopping.

In the UK, X鈥檚 total revenues, which include revenues from non-ad products, plummeted by 66.3% YoY in 2023, according to financial filings made by X in April 2025. Total headcount in the UK also fell from 399 to 114 that year due to Musk鈥檚 cost-cutting measures. Marketers in the UK tend to be more concerned about brand safety and suitability than those in the US.