"TikTok Shop, the platform's payment processing and ecommerce service, underperformed in 2024 and underwent numerous layoffs and reorgs last year. TikTok Shop's challenges are not unique. Google and Meta have tried and failed to establish themselves as full-funnel ecommerce players. But "full funnel" doesn't just refer to marketing. There's also the real-world supply chain of warehousing, fulfillment, returns and customer service."
"Meta bet big with its own Shops and Checkout products, but has majorly backtracked, Seufert notes. Google tried, too, with products like Express for voice-activated devices, and Google Shopping Actions, which became the marketplace "Buy on Google." Those are all defunct now. Google and Meta have no appetite for customer service and fulfillment logistics. For one macro-marker about what it takes to be truly "full funnel": Google employs 180,000+ people, Meta almost 80,000. Amazon has 1.5 million employees."
"Just Scraping By Robots.txt files, or files on a website that specify the publisher's regulations around AI scraping, seem like a great idea ... except that AI bots have been breezing right past them. But the bots read - they're just being trained to find workarounds to the regulations, like masquerading as human visitors. Indeed, according to a from content monetization platform TollBit, 42% of scrapes by OpenAI's RAG agent "ChatGPT-User" were from sites that explicitly blocked the agent."
TikTok Shop underperformed in 2024, triggering layoffs and reorganizations. Google and Meta attempted to become full-funnel ecommerce platforms but retreated from those bets. Full-funnel commerce includes both marketing and real-world supply-chain operations such as warehousing, fulfillment, returns, and customer service. Meta scaled back Shops and Checkout, and Google shuttered Express and Buy on Google. Amazon's employee scale contrasts sharply with Google and Meta, highlighting fulfillment requirements. TikTok now requires Shop sellers to use its fulfillment or approved third-party partners. Robots.txt protections are being bypassed by AI scrapers, and AI-referral click-through rates have fallen sharply, pressuring publisher monetization.
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