There’s a new rivalry in tech: Amazon versus TikTok.

科技界出现了一场新的竞争：亚马逊公司对阵TikTok。

TikTok made a name for itself in the U.S. as a viral video-sharing sensation. Now it’s trying to get its 150 million U.S. users to think of it as a shopping destination.

TikTok曾因在美国掀起一场短视频分享热潮而名声大噪。现在，该公司正试图让1.5亿美国用户将其视为购物目的地。

Amazon, meanwhile, is trying new tactics to maintain its dominance in e-commerce. It has added social elements to its app to entice younger shoppers, and it is building up a network of influencers who hawk items on and off its website.

与此同时，亚马逊也在尝试新的策略，以保持其在电商领域的主导地位。该公司在自家应用中加入了社交元素，以吸引年轻的购物者，并正在建立一个由网红构成的网络进行带货。

As a result, the two companies are on a collision course as they vie for position in a huge market. Researchers at Insider Intelligence estimate social e-commerce will grow into a $100 billion market by 2025, from $67 billion this year.

结果就是，这两家公司在这个巨大市场争夺地位的过程中短兵相接。Insider Intelligence的研究人员预计，到2025年，社交电商的市场规模将从今年的670亿美元增长至1,000亿美元。

To succeed, each company will need to copy elements of the other’s success. TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, wants customers to trust it as a safe and reliable place to buy products, the way many already trust Amazon. And Amazon is trying to persuade users to hang out on its app like they do on social-media services.

要想取得成功，这两家公司都需要复制对方的成功要素。作为字节跳动旗下平台的TikTok希望用户相信它是一个安全可靠的购物场所，就像许多人已经信任亚马逊一样。而亚马逊正试图说服其用户像使用社交媒体服务一样使用其应用。

TikTok launched its shopping feature, called TikTok Shop, last month and is currently selling about $7 million worth of products like hairbrushes, teeth-whitening tools and fall-themed sweatshirts with leaves and pumpkins every day in the U.S., with a goal of reaching $10 million a day by the end of the year, according to people familiar with the matter. Amazon’s global online store sales—a measure of the products Amazon sells directly—was roughly $603 million a day last year.

TikTok上个月推出了名为TikTok Shop的购物功能，知情人士透露，目前TikTok电商在美国日均销售价值约为700万美元的产品，如梳子、牙齿美白工具以及印有树叶和南瓜的秋季主题运动衫，其目标是今年年底前日均销售额达到1,000万美元。去年，亚马逊的全球网上商店销售额（衡量亚马逊直销产品的指标）日均约6.03亿美元。

TikTok is spending heavily to build a logistics operation, poaching Amazon employees and trying to lure third-party sellers by offering them a bigger cut of sales than Amazon, according to sellers. More than 60% of Amazon’s retail sales come from third-party sellers.

据卖家称，TikTok正在斥巨资建立物流业务，挖走亚马逊员工，并试图通过提供比亚马逊更大的销售分成来吸引第三方卖家。亚马逊超过60%的商品零售额来自第三方卖家。

“This is a big change of how people shop and so we want to make sure we’re getting it right,” said Marni Levine, a new TikTok e-commerce executive in charge of U.S. small-business operations who came from Facebook’s parent company, Meta Platforms. She declined to comment on whether TikTok sees Amazon as a competitor. An Amazon spokeswoman said social shopping “has grown tremendously over the past five years” for the e-commerce giant.

TikTok负责美国小企业业务的新任电子商务高管Marni Levine表示：“这是人们购物方式的一个重大变化，因此我们希望确保能正确应对。”Levine此前供职于Facebook母公司Meta Platforms 。她对TikTok是否将亚马逊视为竞争对手不予置评。亚马逊一位发言人表示，亚马逊的社交购物“在过去五年增长迅猛”。

Customer Trust — Advantage: Amazon

客户信任方面，亚马逊占优

Amazon has spent years building up trust among consumers, thanks to a relentless focus on customer experience, including increasingly speedy deliveries and a lenient return policy. TikTok still has to earn that kind of trust.

亚马逊花了多年时间在消费者中建立信任，这要归功于对客户体验的不懈关注，包括越来越快的送货速度和宽松的退货政策。TikTok仍需赢得这种信任。

Deanna Arora, a 26-year-old in Seattle, recently made her first purchase on TikTok Shop. She bought a $9 detangling hairbrush that influencers had been posting about and spent much of the time it was in the mail wondering if it was real or a rip-off, despite scouring reviews of the seller in the app.

26岁的Deanna Arora住在西雅图，最近她第一次在TikTok Shop上买东西。她花9美元买了一把网红们一直在晒的顺发梳，尽管她在该应用中详细查看了卖家下面的评论，但在商品运送途中的大部分时间里，她都在怀疑这是真货还是假货。

“I would have trusted the reviews more on Amazon, but clearly I was so entranced by TikTok,” she said of her purchase. It’s that type of excitement that TikTok is trying to turn into profit.

她在谈到这次购物经历时说：“我会更相信亚马逊上的评论，但显然我对TikTok很着迷。”TikTok正试图将这种着迷转化为利润。

After the hairbrush arrived, she said she still didn’t know if she had received the genuine product or a knockoff, and that there was no good way to tell the difference. TikTok says it has ways for users to verify the authenticity of products purchased on the platform.

梳子到手后，她说自己仍然不知道收到的是正品还是山寨货，也没有很好的办法来分辨。TikTok则称，有办法让用户验证在其平台上所购产品的真伪。

Before the U.S., the company launched TikTok Shop in the U.K. in 2021, and created a “partner network” of third-party agencies that sellers could use to promote products. The shopping feature wasn’t a hit.

在将TikTok Shop引入美国市场之前，TikTok曾于2021年在英国推出了这项购物功能，并创建了一个由第三方代理商组成的“合作伙伴网络”，卖家可以利用该网络推广产品。这一购物功能当时并未大火。

Grace Humphrey, who worked as a content creator for one such agency, said she was paid to make 15 videos a day, and that she was instructed to speak highly of all the featured items, from Apple watches to a bunx corrector.

Grace Humphrey是其中一家第三方代理商的内容创作者，她说自己每天制作15个视频，能拿到报酬，并被要求高度评价从苹果手表到拇趾外翻矫正器等所有被宣传的商品。

“The whole point of the whole thing was to build up trust with the U.K. and get as many sales as possible,” said Humphrey, who now runs her own social-media marketing agency. But the videos, which felt stilted and forced, had the opposite effect: They made users more suspicious.

Humphrey说：“总的目的是与英国消费者建立信任，尽可能多地销售商品。”她现在经营着自己的社交媒体营销代理机构。但这些视频给人生硬和勉强的感觉，反而让用户更加怀疑。

“That was their biggest issue,” she said. “People willing to trust how legit they are.”

“这是最大的问题所在，”她说。“人们不愿意相信这些视频有多大的合法性。”

Internally, TikTok Shop U.K. was considered a flop, according to people familiar with the matter. TikTok is now trying to revive the business there with new features and more reliable vendors.

据知情人士称，在TikTok内部，TikTok Shop U.K.被认为是失败的。TikTok现在正试图通过新功能和更可靠的供应商来重振这项英国业务。

Last month, the company launched the shopping feature in the U.S. It vets sellers’ identities and relies on established, independent influencers to promote products they choose.

上个月，TikTok在美国推出了完整的购物功能，对卖家的身份进行审查，并依靠公认的独立网红达人来带货。

User Engagement — Advantage: TikTok

用户参与度方面，TikTok占优

TikTok’s biggest advantage is its ubiquity in the U.S. The roughly two hours a day on average that U.S. users spend on TikTok leaves other companies jealous. On Amazon, U.S. customers spend an average of about 9.7 minutes a day, according to market-research firm data.ai, which tracks usage on Android devices.

TikTok最大的优势在于它在美国的用户参与度。美国用户平均每天在TikTok上花费约两个小时，这让其他公司羡慕不已。追踪Android设备上应用使用情况的市场研究机构data.ai的数据显示，美国用户平均每天在亚马逊平台上花费约9.7分钟。

In a bid to keep users engaged for longer and to create shopping experiences that would appeal to younger users, Amazon has been integrating more social features into its app.

为了让用户保持更长时间的参与，并创造会吸引年轻用户的购物体验，亚马逊已在旗下应用程序中引入更多社交功能。
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One, called Inspire, shows users a TikTok-style feed of photos and videos featuring products customers can purchase through the app. Amazon recently began to allow shoppers to upload content themselves on the Inspire tab and also added a “share” button that allows users to share the content and products they see. The company said customers have viewed over one billion Inspire posts since the feature launched last year.

其中一个名为Inspire的功能向用户展示TikTok风格的照片和视频推送，推介可以通过该应用购买的产品。亚马逊最近开始允许购物者在Inspire上自行上传内容，并增加了一个“分享”按钮，用户可分享他们看到的内容和产品。该公司表示，自去年推出Inspire功能以来，客户已浏览了超过10亿条Inspire帖子。

Amazon this week also revealed that it is testing another social-type feature in its app, one that allows users to get feedback on products they’re interested in from people they know.

亚马逊上周还披露，该公司正在测试旗下应用中的另一个社交类功能，该功能使用户可以从熟人那里获得对其感兴趣产品的反馈。
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Getting customers to care about new social features like Inspire, however, is a tough task, said Daniel Buchuk, a researcher with Watchful Technologies, which tracked Amazon’s testing and launch of the Inspire tab.

Watchful Technologies追踪了亚马逊对Inspire的测试和发布情况，该机构研究员Daniel Buchuk说，要让客户关注Inspire这样的新社交功能是一项艰巨的任务。

Most Amazon customers are used to going to the app and website to shop for items they already have in mind, he said—not to browse an endless feed of products.

他说，大多数亚马逊用户习惯于在亚马逊应用和网站上选购已有意向的商品，而不是去浏览无穷无尽的商品推送信息。

The company has created a way for social-media influencers to promote Amazon products and earn commissions from sales they generate through personalized “storefronts.” The challenge for Amazon is that this approach relies heavily on influencers posting on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. Influencers say Amazon’s efforts like the Inspire function haven’t grown attractive enough to focus on.

该公司已为社交网红们创造出一种推销亚马逊平台上所售产品的方法，网红可以从个性化“店面”所带来的销售额中赚取佣金。亚马逊面临的挑战是，这种方式高度依赖于网红在TikTok和Instagram等平台上发布信息。网红们则表示，亚马逊推出Inspire新功能的种种努力还不足以吸引到人们的重点关注。

Delivery Logistics — Advantage: Amazon by miles

配送物流方面，亚马逊遥遥领先

TikTok has a long way to go to build a logistics apparatus that can rival Amazon.

TikTok要想建立一个能与亚马逊匹敌的物流系统，还有很长的路要走。

Krystal Sprouse, a regular Amazon shopper, recently heard about a vinyl edition of Taylor Swift’s album “Reputation” for sale on TikTok’s new shopping platform for $26, a bargain for a record that can be hard to find and sometimes sells for double the price.

亚马逊上的常客Krystal Sprouse最近听说TikTok新推出的购物平台上在以26美元价格售卖泰勒-斯威夫特的黑胶唱片《Reputation》，这张唱片很难买到，而且售价有时候比26美元高一倍。

Her shopping experience wasn’t nearly as seamless as on Amazon. The package from TikTok took a week to deliver and was damaged when it arrived.

但她购买这张唱片的体验并不像在亚马逊上那么舒服顺畅。在TikTok上订购的包裹花了一周时间才送到，而且到货时已经损坏。

She’ll probably try TikTok Shop again, she said, but she’s not in a hurry.

她说她可能会再次尝试在TikTok Shop上买东西，但她没那么急。

“I’m impatient, so I prefer to have the option to have Amazon deliver the next day,” said Sprouse, who is 31 years old and lives in Richmond, Va.

31岁的Sprouse住在弗吉尼亚州里士满，她说：“我没什么耐心，所以我更倾向于选择亚马逊上的次日达服务。”
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Amazon has spent years building infrastructure that can ferry packages almost anywhere in the country in two days or less. Last year, it delivered more than 13 million packages on an average day in the U.S., according to data the company provided.

亚马逊花费了数年时间打造基础设施，可以在两天或更短时间内将包裹运送到全美几乎任何地方。根据该公司提供的数据，去年亚马逊在美国的日均包裹递送量超过1,300万件。
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Sellers say TikTok is telling them they must ship products to customers within three days of receiving an order or face delays in receiving payment. The company is also putting all new sellers on a probationary period and requiring them to maintain low rates of refunds and negative reviews.

卖家们表示，TikTok告诉他们必须在收到订单后三天内向客户发货，否则将面临收款延迟的问题。TikTok还给予所有新卖家试用期约束，并要求他们保持低退款率和差评率。

Furthermore, TikTok is building its own distribution networks to be able to ship items itself, something no other social-media platform has done.

除此之外，TikTok还在建立自己的分销网络，以便能自行发货，这在其他社交媒体平台上未有先例。

TikTok’s U.S. e-commerce operations have recruited workers with experience in supply chains and logistics, including executives from Amazon and eBay. Its U.S. team has grown to more than 300 people.

TikTok的美国电商业务招聘了具有供应链和物流经验的员工，其中包括来自亚马逊和eBay的高管。其美国团队已壮大到300多人。

When TikTok started rolling out the program, it prioritized recruiting sellers from Amazon; as of last month the app had 200,000 sellers. Amazon’s U.S. marketplace has an estimated one million active sellers.

当开始推出这个项目时，TikTok优先从亚马逊招募卖家；截至上个月，该应用已入驻20万卖家。据估计，亚马逊的美国市集上有100万活跃卖家。

Influencer Army — Advantage: TikTok, but Amazon is slowly gaining

TikTok占据网红大军优势，而亚马逊的网红“带货”队伍也在缓慢扩大

The two companies are also fighting over influencers.

这两家公司还在为争夺网红而战。

Amazon has made strides since 2017 when it launched an influencer program, luring creators with financial incentives. For some, the payouts have become enough to replace a normal full-time job, as it did for Michelle Lei, who quit her role as a software engineer last year to become a full-time Amazon influencer.

亚马逊自2017年推出一项网红计划以来已取得了长足进步，该计划通过经济激励来吸引内容创作者。对一些人来说，这些报酬足以取代一份常规的全职工作，Michelle Lei就是这样，她去年辞去了软件工程师的工作，成为一名全职的亚马逊网红。

She said she can earn thousands of dollars a month, including one-off commissions from brands. She promotes home-decor products on sale at Amazon through her TikTok and Instagram channels.

她说，她一个月的收入可以达到数千美元，包括品牌给的一次性佣金。她通过自己的TikTok和Instagram频道推广亚马逊上销售的家居装饰产品。

The number of views of TikTok videos promoting Amazon Prime Day sales has doubled every year since 2019, to over 400 million for this year’s event in July, according to research firm Marketplace Pulse.

研究公司Marketplace Pulse的数据显示，自2019年以来，推广Amazon Prime Day销售活动的TikTok视频浏览量每年都翻一番，今年7月活动的TikTok推广视频浏览量达到逾4亿次。

Amazon recently started offering influencers more analytics and tools to make it easier for them to track online traffic and sales, and now hosts retreats for influencers.

亚马逊最近开始为网红提供更多的分析和工具，使他们更容易跟踪在线流量和销售情况，现在还为网红举办放松调整的活动。
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But influencers are TikTok’s bread and butter.

不过，要知道网红是TikTok的主要收入来源。

Kayla Ruliffson, 20, promotes makeup and skin-care products to her 100,000 TikTok followers. She first came across TikTok Shop while she was making a video about a skin-care product in July. The app prompted her to tag the product, then lixed to a place to buy it in the app.

20岁的Kayla Ruliffson向她的10万TikTok粉丝带货化妆品和护肤产品。她第一次接触TikTok Shop是在今年7月，当时她在制作一个关于护肤产品的视频。TikTok应用提示她给这款产品打上标签，并链接到可以在该应用上购买的位置。

Ruliffson said she made $3,000 within a few days.

Ruliffson说她在几天内就赚了3,000美元。

A month later, she uploaded a video promoting a teeth-whitening tool on TikTok Shop. With that video, she said she earned more than $20,000. Her payouts from Amazon had never totaled more than $1,000 a month before.

一个月后，她又在TikTok Shop上传了一段宣传牙齿美白工具的视频。她说，通过这个视频，她赚了2万多美元。在此之前，她一个月从亚马逊获得的报酬总额从未超过1,000美元。