TikTok has spent years making it easier to buy the products that appear in makeup tutorials, cooking videos, and creator recommendations in TikTok Shop. Now, it’s giving shoppers a separate app to open when they’re in the mood to spend on a new lip gloss, a milk frother, or another pair of sneakers.
The company has (rather quietly) released a standalone TikTok Shop app in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines on iOS and Android, as social media consultant Matt Navarra first spotted on X. The launch gives TikTok’s growing shopping business its own place on a phone’s home screen.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
According to its Apple App Store listing, the app offers personalized product recommendations, livestreams and short videos showing products in action, checkout, order tracking, and 24/7 customer support. Shoppers are also being offered app-exclusive deals, free shipping promotions, and first-order perks.
The Google Play listing shows more than 50,000 downloads, while the Singapore Apple App Store lists it at No. 71 in the shopping category, with a single five-star rating. Its latest iOS update, version 45.5.5, arrived just 13 hours before publication (at 1 p.m. ET on Nov. 5).
Credit: Screenshot: Apple’s App Store
The app’s Singapore App Store listing names TikTok Pte. Ltd. as its provider, a separate company from TikTok USDS Joint Venture, which operates TikTok in the U.S. The majority-American-owned joint venture handles U.S. data security, recommendation algorithms, and content moderation, while TikTok’s global business still manages commercial activities, including e-commerce.
It’s unclear whether the standalone shopping app will launch in the U.S. TikTok has not yet responded to Mashable’s request for comment.
Why is TikTok testing a shopping app?
Giving Shop a dedicated app could help TikTok compete for the moments when someone opens Amazon or Temu intending to browse or buy. Videos and livestreams remain part of the experience, according to the listings, but shopping becomes the reason to open the app in the first place.
That fits into a broader expansion Mashable has been following, as TikTok builds more services around the recommendations people encounter on its platform.
In May, TikTok launched TikTok GO’s hotel-booking features, which let U.S. adults book accommodations, tours, and attractions through partners including Booking.com, Expedia, and Viator. Creators can also earn commissions through eligible content, giving a travel recommendation a more direct connection to a reservation.
TikTok’s announcement describes a process that takes people from discovering a place in a video to checking availability and booking it. As CEO of TikTok USDS Joint Venture Adam Presser said at the time, the platform is “good for creators, good for local businesses, and good for communities.”
And more recently, TikTok launched Must Eat, TikTok’s restaurant guide for the areas around New York City, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area. Built from more than 40 million posts, reviews, and comments, it organizes food recommendations into searchable lists, with OpenTable reservations available for select restaurants. A video of a particularly good dinner can influence choosing and booking a future reservation.
TikTok has also been experimenting with giving specific kinds of entertainment their own apps. Its PineDrama service, launched earlier this year, puts short dramas into a separate app with personalized recommendations and tools for browsing series and episodes.
Taken together, those products suggest TikTok sees room to build entire services around habits that started in the feed. The standalone Shop app puts that idea to another test, asking whether people who discover products on TikTok will also choose it when shopping is what they came to do.
From YouTubers and TikTok stars to streamers and podcasters, Mashable talks to creators about how they built their platforms, the gear they swear by, and the trends they see coming next. Read more of our creator coverage, sign up for our Trending Now and Top Stories newsletters or get Mashable push alerts to discover the internet’s most exciting voices.
Source: https://mashable.com/tech/tiktok-shop-standalone-shopping-app
