As reported by TechCrunch:
“The menu at the restaurants will draw upon the most popular viral food posts on TikTok, which people can then have delivered to their door via Grubhub. TikTok plans to launch around 300 locations that will start delivering dishes in March, with plans to open more than 1,000 restaurants by the end of next year.”
On December 17th, the video-sharing platform announced a partnership with ‘Virtual Dining Concepts’ to launch delivery-only ‘TikTok Kitchen’ locations across the country, starting in March. Food and recipe videos have become a key part of the site’s programming, with clips racking up millions of views. The company recently reported that more than 1 Billion people worldwide use the platform monthly.
The process involves using staff and kitchens from other existing restaurants to handle local orders, which means the continual growth of online food delivery options.
What can you expect to see on the TikTok Kitchen menu?
This could provide some indication – earlier this month, as part of its overview of product trends on the platform, TikTok shared this listing of the most popular foods of the year, based on video engagement.
Once you’ve established transactional behaviors, that then leads to more comfort in the same, and that could be another way for TikTok to generate more interest in in-stream shopping for other products and services.
But it does also feel like a challenge to Instagram – which essentially copies everything that TikTok does, just a bit later.
“It seems unlikely that IG will follow-suit in this case, but then again, maybe, if TikTok’s project works, and helps generate more hype around the app. Who are we kidding – if it works, Instagram’s going to copy it. Prepare for a ‘Reels Risotto’ and an ‘IGBLT’ by about May or so next year.” assumes Social Media expert Andrew Hutchinson.
Follow @itp.live to see this come in real life!