If there is any guaranteed path of success for a social platform to remain for a long time, monetization is the way to go. And that’s exactly what TikTok has been rapidly expanding and testing on, in their new collaboration with Walmart.
The collaboration will allow Walmart to showcase “shoppable products” during a TikTok livestream, in which users can shop from Walmart without leaving the app. Pop-up pins will direct users to tap on and add the specified item to their shopping cart and then guided to a mobile checkout experience.
eCommerce is key to TikTok’s survival, especially as it faces setbacks in their growth plans due to India’s banning of the app, and a potential ban from the US – which has been in limbo for now. The current short-form video champion needs to avoid following in its predecessor Vine’s footsteps of failing to implement monetization measures quickly to sustain interests from brands and content creators. Fortunately, TikTok can always refer to the blueprint of their more successful sister app Douyin for ideas.
You Can Now Virtually Try On Makeup when you shop on Google
Google has announced that it is testing AR “Try-On” tools within Google Shopping. This would enable users to virtually try on products, such as clothes, accessories, and make-up using their phone’s front cameras.
This brings a more immersive shopping experience to the table, as customers get to interact with products under different lighting and in different angles, albeit in AR. It also gives brands even more options for their Google Shopping listings.
In addition to this, Google will also add new recommendations from experts to aid a buyer with their decisions. As users scroll through the Discover feed, the Google app will display recommendations from product experts about their favorite buys. Their endorsements help to reassure shoppers of their purchases and provide useful insight about different listings.
For now, it seems that the Try-On tool is exclusively for cosmetic products, but we can already look forward to the incorporation of other product categories in the near future.
Facebook launches new music video app ‘Collab’ to rival TikTok
Facebook has launched a new music video app, ‘Collab’, which allows musicians to remotely record videos individually and combine them with other users. After being available as private beta testing, it has now been made public and available for free from the iOS App Store. The app is a close rival to TikTok and narrows into more creative control over music creation of the user and with others on existing collaborations.
As reported by TechCrunch, within the app, a “collab” is a selection of 3 15-second long independent videos that play in sync. These could consist of different instruments playing at the same time. Users can create a Collab by playing along with another user’s video or swipe across any of the 3 rows to choose a different video to mix from the selection of available videos.
Users will be able to swipe through many videos in the scroll feed and the main feed will eventually be personalised through user preferences and selection by clicking “favourite” in the app.
As Collab makes use of the popular short-form video, it would definitely be a worthy competitor to the current TikTok audience segment.
Disclaimer: Featured image taken from deszone.net.
