When ByteDance officially launched TikTok Shop in the U.S. back in 2023, it went on a hiring spree, poaching dozens of Amazon workers to its Bellevue, Washington offices, which were conveniently located a few blocks from Amazon headquarters.
By the end of 2024, TikTok employed more than 1,700 workers at its offices, with so many having come from Amazon that former staffers told Business Insider its early staff meetings sometimes felt like Amazon alumni reunions. One employee who came from Amazon told Business Insider that 75% of their 2023 TikTok Shop orientation group had previously worked a few blocks at Amazon.
Amazon was frequently brought up at TikTok team meetings in the early days too, with staffers routinely sharing insights about Amazon’s business strategies, even revealing documents taken from their former employer at times.
At first, TikTok aimed to embrace the qualities that grew Amazon into a behemoth that controls 40% of total U.S. e-commerce spend. However as the new U.S. team began to fall short of its e-commerce goals, the tide began to turn.
Dan Whateley of Business Insider shares:
- ByteDance began stripping U.S. executives’ autonomy through changes to their reporting structures.
- U.S. team managers left the company and were replaced by Chinese leadership who “weren’t tapped into the Amazon playbook.”
- TikTok Shop leaders began focusing on replicating the success of ByteDance’s Chinese sister app, Douyin.
- Former staffers said the new leaders were fixated on livestream selling, which worked in China, but did not translate as well in the U.S. market.
- The same person said that leadership wanted “U.S. representation and experience, but they didn’t want to take a U.S. strategy.”
- A second former Shop worker said, “It was a constant struggle between ‘copy Amazon’ and ‘copy Douyin.’”
With recent rounds of layoffs at TikTok’s US e-commerce division, the company is now betting TikTok Shop’s future on the Douyin playbook. The company is following a similar strategy in Latin America.
Check out the full story on Business Insider to learn more about the opposing dynamics at play within TikTok Shop and what the future may hold for the platform.
