TikTok is furthering its in-stream shopping efforts, hoping the feature will eventually change how people use the app, with the ability to make any object in any video "shoppable" now live testing for some users.
Some users are now seeing a new toggle within the video upload flow that allows them to turn on "Identify Similar Objects," which, when turned on, will then identify objects in your videos, via TikTok's object identification AI, and highlight potential product matches that you can purchase in the app.

TikTok has been mulling the move for some time, and Bloomberg reported last month that TikTok would be moving to expanded testing of the process.

While as with virtually all of TikTok's functions, it's already active in Douyin, the Chinese version of the app, and has been for years, providing more ways for users to find and buy products in-stream.

Which has now become the money generator for Douyin. The app generated over $270 billion in direct sales of products in 2023, which has a year-over-year rise of 60%, and that success is now shaping up the strategy at TikTok as well, where its parent company, ByteDance, hopes to do similarly with the Western customer base.

Although so far hasn't been easy in its case.

In-stream shopping has not received the same appreciation among the western audience, while the users of the TikTok app are indeed spending more in the application with time, as data from data.ai shows that, over the course of the whole year 2023, TikTokers spent $3.8 billion in the application, representing a growth of 15% from the previous year.
Clearly still quite far from Douyin's eCommerce growth, and in any case, most in-stream spending by TikTok has gone towards digital coins for donations from creators, not products up to now. Still, however, there is the rising willingness to spend inside the app, which explains why TikTok is now trying to build on it, adding more shopping options in a bid to tap its opportunities.

This also caters to the increasing discovery capabilities on TikTok, bringing it into a more holistic experience of discovery to purchase.

Every indication is there, and once again, ByteDance has already played the same script, which turned out to be extremely effective. But whether that's what Western users would actually like to do--that is, buy in-stream--is a totally different story altogether.
Some user backlash has also arisen due to this recent change, some people saying that the application is growing too commercialized, too pushy within its sales elements through the application. This will only get worse when more customers turn on this new product ID process and would be great to see what people will do with the new approach or look at this as another way in which the short-video app takes a step sideways.

I mean, sentiment alone doesn't mean much, as often a vocal minority will raise concerns about a new element, while overall usage increases, belying such concerns.

That'll be the same here, whether users complain or not, with the sales figures ultimately telling the tale.

Will it end up costing the user more on TikTok, making it a new road to monetization for creators and drive in a new wave of live-commerce, and eventually it turns out like Douyin, a pathway for AI influencers selling?
It would appear that ByteDance is confident that it's the future of the application.