Although TikTok has dominated world charts of app downloads for 2023 and spent more by consumers, in the actual usage, the largest is something else. Last year, Facebook once more ranked the highest in monthly active users, followed closely by other Meta-owned apps like WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger, all of which outranked TikTok, ranked at No. 5. New data is now showing that growth in the app has finally slowed down. Does the entry of TikTok into e-commerce via TikTok Shop have anything to do with it?.

Sensor Tower, a firm that offers market intelligence, new data shows TikTok's growth is still positive, but the momentum is slowing. In 2022, TikTok's monthly active users rose, on average, 12% year-over-year per quarter, but that figure hit only 3% year-over-year per quarter in 2023.
The change comes after TikTok launched TikTok Shop in the U.S.

The shop feature inside the video app has been in testing since November 2022, but those tests have really mushroomed this year as more brands got on board-the latest additions being PacSun, Revolve, Willow Boutique, and beauty brand KimChi Chic, among others. While Shop did not literally launch in the United States until September 2023, it was one among several plays to bring a cultural impact of TikTok videos - basically the entirety of the "TikTok made me buy it" meme - into physical sales.

For example, last summer in the U.K., TikTok tested an in-app shopping section called "Trendy Beat," which sold products sold by TikTok parent ByteDance. An affiliate program is also offered by TikTok, whereby creators earn commissions from the products sold, as AP and others have reported.

But the sellers' embrace of the shopping platform has started to raise complaints, Business Insider reported in November, as some users bemoaned that TikTok Shop was turning the app into an "ad-filled wasteland" and a "dystopian" space. Elsewhere on the web, Redditors have been debating whether TikTok Shop has "ruined" the app, which is now filled with "people dropshipping/selling cheap products," as one Reddit user put it.

Personally, "I get really pizzed off by how basically every other video on my For You Page is someone overhyping some product from the Shop feature trying to get it to go viral and make a shitload of commissions, " said September Redditor u/megg-salad-sammich. "It's great that it's a new avenue for creators to make money, but I find myself scrolling less and less because I know pretty much every video is just trying to get me to buy some random thing," they said.

A search across Reddit finds many more threads complaining of the same thing throughout last year — saying how TikTok is "annoying" now because of TikTok Shop and seeing ads every few videos is a frustrating experience.

While TikTok users are adapting to their favorite social network turning into an online mall, TikTok's Shop Seller app, which powers its e-commerce initiative, has grown.

Sensor Tower said that data indicates the Shop Seller has been growing "robustly" since the fourth quarter of last year, surging by 230% year over year through the fourth quarter last year. However, that is still far behind leader TikTok, which reportedly now counts 1.4 billion active users through the first quarter of this year. Shop Seller tallies around 6 million monthly active users, said the firm.

User frustration over TikTok Shop might actually help Instagram, because Meta-owned app removed its Shop tab back in January last year and killed off live shopping in March. This might make it more palatable for those who want to avoid more direct calls to shop in-app.

Meta's decision was inspired by broader industry trends, which do not seem to bode well for the future of TikTok Shop. During the pandemic, live shopping had flourished, while e-commerce sales had surged to a record high. But when things returned to normal, social commerce-including live shopping-was found to have made up only around 5% of total e-commerce sales in the U.S. as of 2022. That seemed to indicate that U.S. consumers may not have been as primed to shop directly from videos, though they are obviously still influenced by online trends.

Nonetheless, users aren't yet this distraught over TikTok Shop to shut their account and switch fully over to Instagram Reels.

According to Sensor Tower, Instagram averaged at "mid-single digit" rates for month-over-month active user counts. This was also an unchanged range since the arrival of the TikTok Shop Seller app.

Data from another firm, Appfigures, also corroborates this conclusion but adds that, although TikTok's revenue has been increasing, its downloads have either flatlined or declined more than increased — a trend that's been ongoing for more than a year now, including both globally and in the U.S.