TikTok expands beyond video with restaurant guides and payment plans
TikTok is adding services beyond short videos as it moves towards a “super app”: a single platform for a wide range of digital activities. Its latest addition is a restaurant guide, while reported plans for money transfers and existing shopping and discovery features point to a broader effort to keep users inside the app.
The “Must Eat” guide uses more than 40 million TikTok posts and comments to recommend restaurants, with filters for city, cuisine, price, rating and location. TikTok has also developed local discovery, search, games and a FIFA World Cup hub, and its TikTok Pay service is available for Shop purchases in Southeast Asia. A money-transfer feature has been reported as in development, while TikTok has applied to Brazil’s central bank to offer lending and payment services; whether the super-app model will catch on beyond China remains uncertain.
In short
- TikTok has added a restaurant discovery guide.
- Its guide draws on more than 40 million posts and comments.
- The company is also exploring payments and money transfers.
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The case for
A broader TikTok could make everyday tasks more convenient by bringing restaurant discovery, shopping and payments into one familiar app. Its recommendations draw on a large volume of user posts, and keeping services together may help people find local businesses and complete purchases with fewer steps.
The case against
Combining social media, recommendations and financial services could give TikTok greater influence over what users see and how they spend, while concentrating more activity and personal data in one platform. Users may prefer separate specialist services, and the super-app model’s success in China does not show that it will suit other markets or earn the same level of trust.
Explained simply
TikTok began as an app for watching and sharing short videos, but it has added ways to search for places and shop. A “super app” combines several kinds of online service in one place, so users can do more without switching between apps.
TikTok’s restaurant guide draws on posts and comments shared on the platform to help people find places to eat. Its other services include shopping and local discovery, while payment options are available in some markets and more financial services have been reported as under development.
The approach is familiar in China, where some apps combine social media, shopping and payments. Whether people in other countries will use one app for such a wide range of activities remains an open question.
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Originally published by TechCrunch as “From restaurant guides to payments, here’s how TikTok is building a super app”.