TikTok blends ecommerce and social media to turn users into buyers

Check out our top articles for the week [Read from your browser]( Top Stories of The Week Hello {NAME} To be honest, I’m not a TikTok fan. But I was particularly fascinated by the book called [Attention Factory: The Story of TikTok and China’s ByteDance]( written by Matthew Brennan. It provided a glimpse into ByteDance’s rise from a scrappy startup in Beijing to a tech behemoth today worth [US$353 billion](. Now, ByteDance reaches about 1.9 billion people every month. TikTok alone has a global reach of about 1 billion monthly users. At Tech in Asia, we try our best to spot trends as early as possible. So when TikTok Shop, TikTok’s ecommerce arm, started expanding to Southeast Asia, we simply couldn't ignore it. TikTok Shop can enable sellers and creators to speak directly to consumers. That doesn’t mean the end of the marketplace model, where it’s much harder to add a personal touch to a customer’s online shopping experience. Southeast Asians are already addicted to TikTok. Still, the region is a fragmented market that demands hyperlocalization strategies. It remains to be seen if TikTok Shop can effectively convert its users into active buyers. -- [Thu Huong Le]( journalist at Tech in Asia --------------------------------------------------------------- TOP STORIES THIS WEEK 1. [Explaining TikTok’s ecommerce bet in Southeast Asia]( Users in the region are already addicted to TikTok. Will TikTok Shop be as big of a hit? 2. [Is Axie Infinity too big to fail?]( As one of the highest-profile companies in the play-to-earn gaming space, some believe Axie Infinity's success is crucial to the GameFi industry. 3. [Bukalapak’s financial performance in 8 charts]( We analyze the financial figures reported by Bukalapak, Indonesia's first unicorn to go public. 4. [Venture DAOs and VCs: a match made in heaven]( As venture DAOs iron out their problems, a hybrid approach may be the best solution. 5. [Music NFTs could be the next breakthrough application in crypto]( Forget JPEGs - music NFTs are set to be the next big thing on Web3. 6. [Will Grab’s bid for Home Credit bolster its fintech ambitions?]( Acquiring Home Credit’s SEA business will provide Grab access to 24 million customers in the region, but a trio of Japanese banks stand in the way. 7. [As digibanks rise, will Indonesia’s online lenders become obsolete?]( The lines between online lenders and digibanks are blurring, but there are signs that coexistence is possible. 8. [Behind the rise of Google Classroom in Indonesia]( The app has become a popular choice for teachers and schools regionally and globally. But will the momentum continue when the pandemic ends? 9. [Exclusive: Animoca-backed NFT startup scores $120m in Dream Capital-led round]( The Rario investment is expected to kick off Dream Capital's plan to back more early-stage NFT firms. 10. 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