Watch, shop… and dine on TikTok?

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Hello reader,

A few months ago, I saw a TikTok video documenting a walking trail in Singapore that went through the Rail Corridor, a 24-kilometer green passage on the island that used to be a railway line. The video touted it as a “cafe hopping” walking trail because the original poster started her walk at two different cafes and ended it at a third.

I showed it to my friends (shoutout to Betty, who used to oversee this newsletter, and Melissa, who incidentally wrote today’s premium story), and we decided to try it for ourselves. It was good fun, even in the blistering Singapore heat, and we checked out two of the three cafes featured in the TikTok video.

Where I’m going with this story is that TikTok is amazing for discoverability. Through the app, I’ve found out about lots of things, like games I never knew about before, craft projects I want to try, and new restaurants for my next date night.

TikTok appears to be taking this to the next level with the launch of its Local Services feature, which is currently being piloted in Indonesia and Thailand. Let’s go deeper.

Today we look at:

• TikTok’s appetite for offline services
• Indian startups pricing their IPOs below previous valuations
• Other newsy highlights such as BYD’s partnership with Uber and Delivery Hero’s plans to merge its Asian and European businesses

Premium summary

OK, so what else can we do on TikTok now?

Image credit: Timmy Loen

TikTok has emerged as a pretty big name in the tech space, capturing eyeballs, advertisement dollars, and most recently, online shopping spend with the launch of TikTok Shop. Now, it could also be playing a role in how people choose to spend their time off the platform.

• Going local: TikTok is piloting a feature called Local Services, where users can click on a “Point of Interest” tag in a video to discover related offerings such as dining vouchers, food delivery, attraction tickets, and hotel bookings. This signifies a move from solely online content to facilitating offline experiences, mirroring its sister app Douyin’s success in China.
• Battleground: This foray into offline services puts TikTok in direct competition with Grab, which, on top of food delivery, is seeking to capture revenue from in-person dining experiences. In addition, Grab recently acquired Chope, a Singapore-headquartered restaurant reservation platform.
• Question mark: The real challenge will lie in whether hype and online visibility can be converted into actual offline sales. While TikTok is a great platform for boosting brand awareness in F&B, for instance, it may not drive immediate conversions, as some eateries have found.

Read more: TikTok, Grab collide in F&B as appetite for offline services grows

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