The Chinese company’s venture called ‘TikTok Shop’ launched in the UK last year, its first market outside of Asia. Brands and influencers go live and sell products through a clickable orange basket on the viral short video app’s screen. Live streaming commerce is seen as the future of shopping by social media platforms. They get a commission on sales, with competitors YouTube and Instagram rolling out similar features in Europe. The model has proven profitable for TikTok parent ByteDance, which has seen sales on its Chinese sister app Douyin more than triple year-on-year, selling more than 10 billion products. TikTok had planned to launch the feature in Germany, France, Italy and Spain in the first half of this year, before expanding to the US later in 2022, according to several people briefed on the matter. But expansion plans were shelved after the U.K. project failed to meet targets and influencers pulled out of the program, three of the people said. “The market isn’t there yet,” said a TikTok employee. “General consumer awareness and adoption is still low and nascent.” Many TikTok Shop live streams have seen poor sales despite the company offering subsidies and cash incentives to encourage brands and influencers to sell through the app. A Financial Times investigation last month revealed there had been a mass exodus of staff from the company’s e-commerce team in London, who complained about an aggressive work culture imposed by the company’s Chinese leadership.

Following the revelations, Joshua Ma, a senior ByteDance executive who ran the TikTok Shop in Europe, was replaced as the company investigated comments made to London-based staff that he “didn’t believe” in maternity leave. TikTok said it had no current plans to develop shopping capabilities in Europe and was solely focused on making the proposition a success in the UK. The product was recently launched in Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam and has been available in Indonesia since last year. “We’re always looking for ways to improve our community’s experience and regularly test new features that inspire creativity, bring joy and innovate the TikTok experience in markets around the world,” it said. “We’re excited to experiment with new commercial opportunities that allow our community to discover and engage with what they love.” Additional reporting by Eleanor Olcott in Taipei