TikTok has largely moved out of discussion in mainstream media outlets after playing a significant role in the ongoing battle between China and the United States. The platform continues to operate in the US and, as mentioned here recently, there is not a direct integration between Shopify and Tiktok. This push is an effort to help drive new advertisers to the platform and solidify partnerships with companies outside of the Google and Facebook purview.

While only 3% of ecommerce brands are currently present on Tiktok, the platform is poised for huge growth in the year ahead. While much of the China-US tech issues are in escalation, there's little denying the immense popularity of the platform among users,

When Tiktok first gained traction, it was known to lure users with heavy marketing spend including the use of influencers, unlike the viral, organic growth of many existing social networks. Tiktok is taking the same strategy in acquiring advertisers, even leveraging its influencers to make it easy for brands to generate ad content.

TikTok features a “Creator Marketplace” in which brands are matched with popular influencers to collaborate on advertisements

“TikTok ads are a lot easier to resonate with the users,” said Tiffany Ou, the general manager for the Americas of Nativex, a mobile ad platform that helps brands market on TikTok, among other apps. “When they watch them, they don’t even recognize they’re watching ads.”

TikTok ads appear in users’ feeds just like regular TikTok videos, except they’re made by brands, not users. That distinction isn’t always obvious. Many TikTok ads, like this one from the dating app Bumble, will look and feel like every other TikTok video a user sees in their feed. It’s a seamless, unobtrusive experience—and one much different from the ad experience on YouTube, or even Facebook.

It will be hard to stop TikTok's growth among users and digital commerce is sure to follow. Tiktok is building relationships with businesses around the world including the US, and it provides an alternative to the existing platforms of Google, Facebook, et al at a time when Google is literally being sued for not providing enough choice to consumers.

As advertisers are lured in with offers of $300 credits, brands will find new opportunities for growth - and be able to track those analytics more closely than from any third party platforms.

Barring a ban of the platform in the United States, Tiktok will see enormous growth among brands and marketers over the next 6-12 months. There's too much opportunity to be ignored while the challenges of marketing on Facebook only increase.