5–7 minutes


Take Domino’s Pizza. Saddled with a tragic safety scandal from its 30-minute delivery guarantee, a half-century-old crappy recipe, and nearly $1 billion in debt in 2004, the company we know today staged its turnaround from 2008, harnessing the nascent technology of the time to grasp an unfair advantage and virtual stranglehold on the U.S. pizza delivery market. Since 2017, it has held the largest share in terms of sales.

Domino’s was doing online ordering before Uber Eats was a glimmer in its founder’s eye. It introduced its web-based “pizza tracker” well before anyone else stole the idea, and it was doing delivery far better than Grubhub, which was founded a full 10 years earlier.

In the Web 2.0 world, defined as the social or user-generated wave of the internet, other companies have seized a Domino’s-style advantage writ large in their own areas. 

Nike was relatively late to the game, but they grasped control of the digital fitness market in 2006, with its Nike+ digital platform, partnership with Apple on the Nike iPod and their new wearable technology. The partnership with the Apple iPod and a funny little wearable you put in the sole of your shoe was clunky but amazingly effective. It connected with consumers, offered personalized training programs, and performance tracking – and, most importantly, created a community of fitness enthusiasts. Nike has become the behemoth in the digital-fitness space.

Ford recognised the potential of social media early on and actively engaged with customers through platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Ford’s digital presence allowed them to listen to customer feedback, address concerns, and build brand loyalty by actively participating in online conversations. 

At the emergence of search and performance-based advertising, Dell and American Express captured outsized ROI based on their early investment of resources into the area, largely because of their historic spend and ROI-driven activities in direct marketing. In the early days search terms were inexpensive, there was low competitive tension, and this gave a huge return for the early adopters who addressed the market before the masses arrived…..

And therein is the key… 

It’s not just being early with your digital bet. It’s betting right, and putting the investment behind that bet. If you’re going to try and dominate a nascent market.

Where we saw Google emerge during the Search wave, and Facebook (and then Instagram) obliterated those in front of them in the community-based Social era, TikTok is having such a moment in this new algorithmic world. Firstly dominating in terms of audience, and then in minutes consumed, they have come from nowhere to be an app of choice for consumers who love their format. 90% of consumers who use TikTok say “It makes me happy” and “I never get bored” – this is incredibly powerful, and it is a great way to announce to the world “We’re a shop”. 

TikTok, as a relatively new platform is capturing attention in a way that already sees its rivals grumbling about their unfair advantage. Now they have announced they are actually a shop, more similar to Amazon and Shopee than Facebook, and they are completely upending what was previously viewed as live commerce.

Live Commerce is THE emergent media and it’s not next, rather, it’s now…. 

TikTok Live recently launched in the UK, after launching in Southeast Asia in the second half of 2022 and with exceptional growth in 2023. It quickly came from literally nowhere to become what is forecast to be the second-largest e-commerce platform in the region in around a year, approaching $20 billion GMV and 30% CAGR per month. 

For those who are new to this space, Live Commerce is exactly what it sounds like: You see it, you buy it. As you watch a live streamer touting a product, you simply click inside that live video environment to buy what the streamer is selling on the platform where you watch the video. You never leave the stream. It’s a highly effective way to sell – up to 9x better than the traditional “watch here, click and buy outside the stream/app” models that have, up until recently, served as the quasi-version of live commerce seen outside China.

If you’re wondering whether the SE Asia figures are a fluke, they’re not. Live commerce generated $490 billion in revenue for sellers in China in 2022, and that’s forecast to top $704 billion in China by the end of this year.

Globally, everyone but China is playing catch-up in this channel. In South East Asia, particularly in Indonesia and Vietnam, TikTok is proving this is not “a China phenomenon”. Other successes are more niche, either in terms of local players per market like Rakuten in Japan and Trendyol in Turkey, or niche in terms of target and users like WhatNot in the US.

Whilst still internationally niche, the eye-watering numbers from China and SE Asia have the global platforms racing to add live and social commerce to their platforms to tackle Bytedance’s TikTok threat. It’s worth noting here that Meta tried this before and failed. That wasn’t because Western audiences weren’t ready for Live Commerce, it is because they did an awful version of Live Commerce functionality…

Expect lots more lobbying in Washington to counter TikTok, the “friendly” yet dominant duopoly behind a lot of the anti-China sentiment espoused about ByteDance and its ownership. It’s just going to be a matter of time before we’re spammed to buy and sell through whatever live commerce functions they build into the Western platforms.

If you’re still not convinced, whether we’re at one of those unfair advantage inflection points, consider that the world’s biggest online, offline and brick and mortar retailers – Amazon, Walmart, and Target – have each launched (or relaunched new…) live commerce solutions in 2023. Alibaba also just invested a new injection of $845 million in Lazada to combat the competition from TikTok, trying to avoid becoming the number 3 platform in SEA. YouTube and Shopify are both entering the field with live commerce solutions.

So, if the question is now, “How do we develop/inspire/grow/create a competitive advantage, above market acceleration, relative to the competitive set,” the answer is “Get great at TikTok Live and prepare for more platforms that allow brands a “direct-to-consumer” experience. Imagine if you’d had the opportunity to get great at SEM and SEO on Altavista, Looksmart, and Overture before Yahoo and Google launched/acquired their paid search offerings… At Stickler, we’re working with some of the world’s biggest brands to deliver exceptional results through this channel, and we are at the epicenter of this shift. We don’t do anything but Live Commerce.

If you need some help getting started with your live strategy, reach out or email us and say hello (mailto:hello@stickler.live). We’d love to hear from you!