ByteDance’s Content Aggregator Toutiao Adds E-Commerce Channel Linked to Douyin

An independent shopping channel has been set up within Toutiao, a content discovery platform owned by Beijing-based tech giant and TikTok parent company ByteDance. Users of the new service can purchase goods provided by Douyin’s e-commerce business in the shopping channel by inputting keywords and placing an order, Tech Planet reported on October 18.

The ordering process for this new channel is identical to that within Douyin, TikTok’s counterpart app for mainland China. Users can also watch livestreaming content on the product page and place orders with discount coupons. In addition, the original mall channel within Toutiao still exists, which means users can shop on these two channels.

In fact, Toutiao has become an important entrance for Douyin’s e-commerce business. In the first half of this year, Toutiao announced that the livestreaming section would be upgraded as a whole, and related services would be provided by Douyin. Users and creators can migrate or integrate the livestreaming rights in their Toutiao account into their Douyin account, which provides considerable traffic for livestreaming on Douyin.

Subsequently, Douyin’s livestreaming was quickly integrated into the Toutiao app. In the recommendation of the homepage, every time users browse five to six pieces of content, a livestreaming entrance will appear. More importantly, the currently recommended livestreaming content is mainly related to e-commerce. In the process of integrating a series of functional services with Douyin, today’s Toutiao has already become an important traffic-attracting platform for Douyin’s e-commerce.

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Previously, the development of e-commerce on Toutiao was not smooth. With a decline of user base growth, it has been difficult for Toutiao to grow with ads as the major profit source. E-commerce undoubtedly has great potential for a content discovery platform like Toutiao.

In recent years, e-commerce with recommended content as a major feature, and livestreaming e-commerce as represented by Xiaohongshu, have been rapidly rising in China, and many platforms such as Kuaishou, Pinduoduo, Douyin and Taobao are moving into these two fields, which are still inseparable from the support of content searching services. Toutiao has a large content base and over 100 million monthly active users, among which many are potential customers of Douyin’s e-commerce.