ByteDance-owned TikTok’s e-commerce operation is expanding into Mexico, the initial stop of a broader foray across Latin America, according to three merchants invited to the anticipated launch next month.
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TikTok Shop has started inviting merchants to open stores on the platform ahead of the expected start of transactions in February of its Mexico retail operation, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. They said merchants with a locally registered entity are eligible to sign up and be exempt from commission fees for the first 90 days of commercial activity.
The push into Mexico was initially expected to be in the summer, according to a South China Morning Post report in May, but was postponed amid scrutiny of TikTok in the United States.
TikTok Shop’s geographic expansion south of the US shows the undeterred response of social-media giant ByteDance to Washington’s “sell-or-ban” law.
TikTok and Beijing-based ByteDance have challenged the federal law requiring the popular short-video platform to be banned from all domestic app stores by January 19 unless its US operations are sold to a non-Chinese buyer.
Valued at more than US$84 billion with more than 170 million monthly active users in America, TikTok last week said in its US Supreme Court filing that the disputed law was “at war with the First Amendment” free-speech rights guaranteed by the US Constitution.