TikTok might have been the world’s prime app by downloads and shopper spending in 2023, nevertheless it was not the highest by precise utilization. Final 12 months, Fb once more maintained its No. 1 place by month-to-month lively customers, adopted by different Meta-owned apps WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger — all of which have been forward of TikTok at No. 5. Now new information signifies that TikTok’s progress has began to gradual, begging the query of whether or not the app’s transfer into e-commerce by way of TikTok Store is accountable.

In keeping with new information from market intelligence agency Sensor Tower, whereas TikTok’s progress stays optimistic, that progress is decelerating. In 2022, TikTok’s month-to-month lively customers grew a median of 12% year-over-year per quarter, however this determine fell to three% year-over-year per quarter in 2023.

The change comes on the heels of TikTok’s launch of TikTok Store within the U.S.

The video app started testing Store within the U.S. in November 2022 and people assessments expanded at the start of final 12 months as extra manufacturers got here on board, together with PacSun, Revolve, Willow Boutique, and sweetness model KimChi Stylish, amongst others. Whereas the Store didn’t “formally” launch within the U.S. till September 2023, it was solely considered one of a number of efforts to translate the affect of TikTok movies — primarily the entire “TikTok made me purchase it” meme — into real-world gross sales.

Final summer season within the U.Okay., for instance, TikTok experimented with an in-app buying part known as “Stylish Beat,” which provided merchandise offered by TikTok mum or dad ByteDance. TikTok additionally provides an associates program that permits creators to earn commissions from merchandise, as the AP and others have reported.

However sellers’ embrace of the buying platform has began to result in complaints, as Enterprise Insider famous in November, with some lamenting that TikTok Store was turning the app into an “ad-filled wasteland” and a “dystopian” house. Elsewhere on the internet, Redditors have been debating whether or not TikTok Store has “ruined” the app, which is now crammed with “folks dropshipping/promoting low-cost merchandise,” as one Reddit person put it.

“Personally, I’m beginning to get actually aggravated by how nearly each different video on my [For You Page] is somebody overhyping a product from the Store characteristic to attempt to get it to go viral and make quite a lot of commissions,” wrote Redditor u/megg-salad-sammich in September. “It’s nice that it’s a brand new avenue for creators to earn a living, however I discover myself scrolling much less and fewer as a result of I do know just about each video is simply attempting to get me to purchase some random factor,” they mentioned.

A search throughout Reddit finds many extra threads complaining of the identical factor all through final 12 months — saying how TikTok is “annoying” now due to TikTok Store and seeing advertisements each few movies is a irritating expertise.

Whereas TikTok customers are adapting to their favourite social community turning into a web based mall, TikTok’s Store Vendor app, which powers its e-commerce initiative, has grown.

Sensor Tower information signifies the Store Vendor’s progress has been “strong” for the reason that fourth quarter of 2022, rising 230% year-over-year as of the fourth quarter of 2023. Nonetheless, the app has solely a fraction of TikTok’s lively person base — at the moment 1.4 billion as of the primary quarter of this 12 months. Store Vendor, in the meantime, has simply round 6 million month-to-month lively customers, the agency reported.

Instagram might in the end profit from the person frustration round TikTok Store, provided that the Meta-owned app eliminated its personal Store tab in January of final 12 months and killed off dwell buying in March. This might doubtlessly make it extra acceptable to these desirous to keep away from extra direct calls to motion to buy in-app.

Meta’s transfer was triggered by broader trade developments, which appear to not bode nicely for TikTok Store’s future. Reside buying had blossomed in the course of the pandemic, and e-commerce gross sales skyrocketed. However when issues returned to regular, social commerce (together with dwell buying) was discovered to have made up solely round 5% of whole e-commerce gross sales within the U.S. as of 2022. That appeared to point that U.S. customers might not have been as primed to buy immediately from movies, although they are clearly nonetheless influenced by on-line developments.

Nonetheless, customers aren’t but so upset with TikTok Store as to desert the app for Instagram Reels.

Sensor Tower discovered that Instagram’s month-to-month lively person progress has been comparatively constant at “mid-single digits” and hasn’t been considerably impacted negatively or positively for the reason that launch of the TikTok Store Vendor app.

Knowledge from one other agency, Appfigures, additionally helps this conclusion however provides that, though TikTok’s income has been rising, its downloads have been stagnant or dropping greater than rising — a pattern that’s been occurring for over a 12 months now, together with each globally and within the U.S.

Picture Credit: Appfigures

Picture Credit: Appfigures