Amid the will they, won’t they drama of the still-looming TikTok ban, a lesser-known shopping app seized an opportunity.
On January 19, directly after TikTok temporarily went dark in the US, Whatnot ran a full-page print ad in newspapers across the country, reading, “No matter what happens, we’re here for you.” The message circulated in the Sunday editions of the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Houston Chronicle, Miami Herald, and Dallas Morning News.
During the weekend of its run, Whatnot saw its largest seller application rate and new seller days ever, according to the company.
The move to woo TikTok users looking for a new home was something of a national introduction for Whatnot, which bills itself as providing a live selling and buying experience centered around common interests. The company, which raised additional funding in January and was valued at nearly $5 billion, is looking to make live shopping as popular in the US as it is overseas, particularly as it leans into catering to communities around certain shopping categories, Armand Wilson, Whatnot’s VP of categories and expansion, said.
“We’ve been pretty quiet over the last few years,” Wilson told us. “But we really want to get louder this year, because we think it’s right. We think the product’s ready.”
What who?
Whatnot, as Wilson put it, is perhaps best described as “eBay meets Twitch.” Though reminiscent of QVC, the company says that its version of live shopping provides a lot more content. That includes more than “175,000 hours of livestreams on the platform every week,” which is, according to Whatnot’s 2024 State of Livestream Selling Report, “800x more than QVC’s weekly broadcast hours.”
The app hosts live sellers who conduct auctions or flash sales across various categories, ranging from collectibles like Pokémon cards and comic books to fashion items like sneakers and handbags.
Whatnot got its start in one very specific niche: Funko Pops, and Wilson said the platform aimed to “solve problems in that specific community” of sellers and collectors. That included addressing issues with inauthentic products, fraud, and fans lacking a place to share their passions, he told us.
Focusing on the niche community element of the platform is what Wilson hopes will allow Whatnot to stand out.
“There’s been a lot of different people who have tried to tackle live shopping in the US,” he said. “A lot of people have just kind of taken things that worked in other parts of the world and tried to copy and paste it here. And we found that that’s not what we believe in. We try to be very community-focused.”
Live wire
Live shopping is a growing industry in North America, with an expected compound annual growth rate of 32% between 2024 and 2030, according to market research and consulting firm Grand View Research. In the US, alongside platforms like TikTok and Whatnot, major retailers like Walmart, Amazon, and Nordstrom host live-shopping events on their websites.
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But the live-commerce space, which formed its roots in China after Alibaba’s Taobao Live sprung up as the first live e-retailer in 2016, is much larger overseas. The international live-shopping market was valued at $1.3 billion in 2024, and is expected to grow to $7.7 billion by 2033, according to research firm Straits Research. Beyond Taobao Live, the format has made its way onto other platforms like Kuaishou and Douyin, and in 2023, it spread to ByteDance-owned TikTok. The Gen Z-beloved social platform saw a big push for live shopping in June 2024, when beauty brand Canvas Beauty hosted TikTok’s first-ever $1 million livestream event.
Whatnot’s live sellers are platform-agnostic and often sell on TikTok and other platforms, Wilson said, and customers who buy items on Whatnot sometimes also make haul-style videos on TikTok. It’s an almost symbiotic relationship, and Wilson said changes on TikTok may mean creators are looking for stability elsewhere.
“[With] all the turbulence with TikTok right now, and the uncertainty in what happens there, I think the real thing that is a bummer is there’s so many amazing small businesses on TikTok that just don’t really know what their future looks like,” Wilson said. “So for those folks, we’re trying to just help them have a stable home where it makes sense.”
Now what?
TikTok’s fate in the US is still up in the air, but Wilson said Whatnot is looking to continue growing whether TikTok ends up going dark or not.
“We do not want competition to distract us,” Wilson said.
In 2024, Whatnot reported that sales volume surpassed $3 billion, more than doubling year over year. Looking ahead, Wilson said the company continues to prioritize growth, especially in fashion product offerings, category expansion, and an increased brand presence. The fountain-pen company Esterbrook, which started streaming on Whatnot earlier this month, told Marketing Brew that it sold $22,000 worth of pens on its first stream.
“[It’s] pretty wild that I think you can see all different types of sellers, all different types of communities finding value,” Wilson said.
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