TikTok正在改变推荐和销售图书的方式

《经济学人·商论》2023-10-01

TikTok is changing the way books are recommended and sold

钱Tok秀

首先，镜头扫过八本书——书页间贴着少说得有数百个便签贴，彰显这些书有被认真阅读和仔细标注。接着，屏幕上滑过一句话：“我第一次愿意出卖灵魂换得再读一遍的书。”音乐声渐强，一只纤纤玉手随着节奏揭开了书的封面，向观众展示西蒙娜·德·波伏娃（Simone de Beauvoir）、埃莱娜·费兰特（Elena Ferrante）和莎莉·鲁尼（Sally Rooney）等作者的名字。

这位名叫“buryme.withmybooks”（“拿我的书给我陪葬”）的用户没有解释她为什么喜欢这些书，但这并不重要。在TikTok这类社交媒体上，要的就是夸张。大约有930万人观看了这段视频，近40万人将其收藏以备日后参考。

如今，拥有逾10亿活跃用户的TikTok正在出版界留下重要印记。这主要得益于供用户评论书籍的社群BookTok。它是TikTok上最大的社群之一，目前带有BookTok标签的视频播放量已经达到1790亿次，是BeautyTok（美妆爱好者也细化为不同的群体）的两倍多。再加上带有#reading、#books和#literature等标签的视频，总播放量超过2400亿次。那些曾宣称“书籍已死”的人是不怎么刷TikTok，也不大逛书店的——如今书店用整块显示屏来推介“TikTok同款”书。... ...【想要继续阅读《经济学人·商论》付费文章？】欢迎打开商论App，订阅后可获取全文中英双语版

衍生阅读 | TikTok攻入东南亚电商战场

《经济学人·商论》2023-09-21

TikTok is wading into South-East Asia’s e-commerce wars

Island shopping
岛上购物

IN MARCH TIKTOK’S chief executive, Shou Zi Chew, faced angry lawmakers in Washington, who grilled him for five hours on topics ranging from misinformation to mental health. A threat of a ban in America, the short-video app’s largest market, looms large. Other Western governments are making similar noises. TikTok, which is owned by a Chinese firm called ByteDance, has already been locked out of India, another big market, since 2020 on grounds of national security.
今年3月，TikTok的首席执行官周受资现身华盛顿，接受怒气冲冲的议员就错误信息到心理健康等问题长达五小时的盘问。这个短视频应用在它最大的市场美国面对被封禁的威胁。类似的声音在其他西方政府也此起彼伏。TikTok隶属一家名为字节跳动的中国公司，自2020年以来已被它的另一个大市场印度以国家安全为由拒之门外。

Contrast that with the welcome Mr Chew received in June in Jakarta. He charmed a crowd in the Indonesian capital that included government officials with his plans for the company in South-East Asia, promising to invest “billions of dollars” in the region over the next few years. As uncertainty looms over its prospects elsewhere in the world, TikTok, which in 2020 moved its global headquarters to Singapore, is eyeing South-East Asia’s nearly 700m consumers to bolster its fortunes. Reactions to his talk ranged from favourable to gushing—except among the region’s digital incumbents.
与此形成鲜明对比的是周受资6月在雅加达受到的欢迎。在印尼首都，包括政府官员在内的一群人拜倒在他的西装裤下，他承诺未来几年TikTok将在东南亚投资“数十亿美元”。TikTok已于2020年将全球总部迁至新加坡。由于在世界其他地方的前景不明，它盯上了东南亚的近7亿消费者以改善自己的处境。周受资的言语收获了认可乃至溢美之词——唯已在该地区扎根的数字公司除外。

That is because TikTok’s ambitions in South-East Asia go beyond silly dance videos. In 2021 it launched TikTok Shop, which lets users buy products directly from the app. According to Momentum Works, a research firm in Singapore, last year products worth around $5bn were sold globally on its platform. This year the target is $20bn, with three-quarters of that coming from South-East Asian wallets.
这是因为TikTok在东南亚的野心并不止于展示傻气的舞蹈视频。2021年，它推出了TikTok Shop，用户可以直接从这个应用购物。根据新加坡研究公司Momentum Works的数据，去年该平台在全球销售了价值约50亿美元的产品。今年的销售目标是200亿美元，其中四分之三将来自东南亚人的腰包。... ...... ...【想要继续阅读《经济学人·商论》付费文章？】欢迎打开商论App，订阅后可获取全文中英双语版