TikTok Shop will arrive in Spain, Italy, France, Germany and Mexico this summer!

The arrival of TikTok Shop to multiple nations is close: according to the South China Morning Post, the popular social network's e-commerce will be launched this summer in Spain, France, Italy, Germany, and Mexico, expanding its presence to 13 markets worldwide. 

According to sources familiar with the matter, the social network has already begun inviting sellers to test a beta version of TikTok Shop in these new markets before the official launch. However, the criteria for selling at TikTok Shop have been tightened. 

In the case of Mexico, sellers must have a locally registered entity and, in principle, are restricted from selling certain products such as food and jewelry.

TikTok Shop is available in the US, UK, Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand. In 2022, as reported by the Financial Times, the company backed off and ultimately opted not to launch TikTok Shop in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, seeing that the UK operations failed to meet internal targets and attract influencers.

In other markets, such as the U.S., TikTok Shop has gained strong traction. As reported by the social network, more than 500,000 were selling products on TikTok Shop (year-end 2023 data), more than double the number three months earlier. 

As of December 2023, TikTok had more than 15 million sellers worldwide, after adding more than 6 million in the second half of 2023, the company said in its first TikTok Shop Safety Report, published recently. TikTok has a global target of reaching $50 billion in gross merchandise value in 2024.

TikTok under scrutiny 

Meanwhile, TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance remain under the scrutiny of U.S. and European authorities. Last week they filed a lawsuit in a District of Columbia court seeking to block the bill passed by the U.S. Senate that will allow a nationwide ban on the social network if ByteDance does not disassociate itself from the network. 

The company had warned that it would take legal action in April after that law was passed. This legislation gave ByteDance 270 days to sell TikTok so that it would not be removed from the country's app stores and U.S. Internet services. The bill was approved by a 352-65 vote in the lower house and passed the Senate.