How a dirty old pencil proves TikTok shop has jumped the shark
January 15, 2024
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2:00Now PlayingHow a dirty old pencil proves TikTok shop has jumped the shark
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as posted by the channelTikTok shop has officially jumped the shark. There's no better proof of this than this man who recently used it to sell a dirty used pencil.
Since TikTok shop launched, our feeds have become overrun with shopping content. At this point, TikTok will promote literal garbage if it's sold in Shop. Case in point: John Herrman, a writer in New York City, signed up for TikTok shop last week and listed an old, used, mechanical pencil.
TikTok's AI system generated the product listing for him, including a bulleted list of info about the pencil, most of which was wildly inaccurate.
The writer had almost no followers on Tiktok and had never posted, but after the app encouraged him to go live to sell the pencil, he was flooded with strangers and his shop was promoted to over 1200 people.
Multiple users added the old pencil to their carts, and ultimately someone bought it for $1 with free shipping. In the end, he made 69 cents on the sale, and TikTok lost at least $4.
He documented all of this in a story for New York Magazine where he writes:
"thousands of people received a direct message notification that I, a person they do not know or follow, and to whom they have no other intentional connection, had gone live to sell a used pencil.
I think this story shows exactly how hard TikTok is pushing products right now, in many cases stuff that literally no one wants or is asking for.
From a business standpoint TikTok is in a tough place, ad dollars are on the decline and it's incredibly hard to monetize social media content.
Social media videos also come with a myriad of problems. TikTok is a lot less likely to get hauled in front of congress or banned if people are just using it to buy ring lights instead of learn about the world.
At the same time, cheap chinese ecommerce platforms like Shein and Temu are booming. But for TikTok to succeed at selling things, they need products that people actually want.
If they keep spamming people with garbage like used pencils, there might not be anyone left to sell to.
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#news #journalism #tiktok #tiktokshop #exommerce #shopping #temu #shein #shop #contentcreator #creator #influencer #journalist #apps #internet #onlineculture #internetculture #socialmedia #news #contentcreator #technology #creatoreconomy #creator #tech #elon #elonmusk
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