With 200 Million Monthly Active Users in Europe, What Opportunities Does TikTok Offer?

type

date

slug

summary

Tags

Published

SEOUpdatedDate

MetaDescription

SEOCreatedDate

SEOTitle

Public

Description

status

Introduction

While netizens in China jokingly refer to Jiangsu province as "Scattered Jiangsu" during the European football season, the world map presents an even larger-scale version: "Scattered Europe." The European continent, home to dozens of countries and regions and a mosaic of hundreds of cultural practices, is being quietly woven together by the global wave of short videos and the algorithmic magic of TikTok. Interest-driven content and recommendation engines are gradually piecing together a more coherent European puzzle. And as e-commerce genes are injected into this new picture, a storyline centered on reshaping consumption habits and transforming the commercial ecosystem is unfolding across Europe.

Recently, TikTok officially announced that its monthly active users (MAU) in Europe have surpassed 200 million—a 14.29% increase from 175 million in the second half of 2024—covering nearly one-third of the combined population of the European Economic Area and mainland UK. This milestone not only signifies a significant leap in TikTok's European user base but also shatters the long-held "steady growth" stereotype associated with the European market since TikTok's UK launch in 2021.

Notably, in May this year, TikTok's global MAU exceeded 1 billion, with several new country sites launching subsequently. While many sellers are focusing on the Japanese market, this European user growth announcement likely signals TikTok's accelerated push into European e-commerce. The recently concluded TikTok Shop Europe Summer Sale saw stellar performances across multiple countries: self-operated merchants (POP) in four EU countries saw daily GMV surge over 200%, while TikTok's fully-managed model (TOP) in its formal phase grew 122%, with a single-day peak reaching 200%. In the UK, TOP merchant GMV exploded by over 600%, and the POP model saw cycle-over-cycle GMV growth exceed 90%. This data robustly proves the strong e-commerce explosive potential stored within the European market.

TikTok: The New Social Media Sovereign in Europe

From the officially disclosed information, the platform views surpassing 200 million European MAU as a milestone of significant strategic importance. Looking at Europe's social media competitive landscape, TikTok resembles a dynamic "new challenger" continuously shaking up the market structure long dominated by traditional giants. While its penetration rate hasn't yet caught up to "national-level apps" like Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, its user growth rate and engagement show a momentum that has left these platforms playing catch-up.

The European social media market has entered a highly mature stage, with traditional platforms generally transitioning from high growth to slower growth or even stagnation. Yet, TikTok continues to grow against the trend at 14.29%, like a boulder tossed into a calm pond, re-energizing the entire market's competitive vitality and developmental imagination. Perhaps out of "apprehension," some platforms began adjusting their strategies after TikTok's meteoric rise—for instance, Instagram launched its Reels short video feature to counter TikTok's growth, attempting to build its own content moat. However, against the backdrop of the public's ingrained perception that "short video ≈ TikTok," simple imitation may prove ineffective. Given the current growth trend, TikTok's total European user base is expected to catch up with traditional social platforms within the foreseeable future, securing its place among Europe's "national apps."

The most significant distinction between TikTok and legacy media channels lies in its strong content-centric nature. Data shows that European users spend an average of 58 minutes daily on TikTok, far exceeding other social platforms in the market. The only contender is YouTube, which centers on long-form video content. This data echoes user feedback—on emerging social media platforms like TikTok or Rednote, one often sees younger demographics overseas criticizing Instagram or Facebook content as "outdated," viewing these channels as useful only for news or communication among older users. Compared to the functional positioning of traditional social channels, TikTok has captured the leisure time of European users, especially the youth, with entertaining content, building a highly active content ecosystem.

Before TikTok Shop launched in four EU countries, many sellers preferred to focus their operations on markets with more "enthusiastic" e-commerce atmospheres like the US, Thailand, and Indonesia. The "steady" performance of TikTok UK may have led many sellers to lower their expectations for the European market, with even the launches in Spain and Ireland creating minimal buzz. However, with the opening of German, Italian, and French sites this year, seller interest in TikTok's European market has been reignited. While this shift is partly influenced by external factors like US market instability, low-price competition in Southeast Asia, and intensifying competition in Japan, it stems more from the inherent potential of the European market itself. Surpassing 200 million MAU not only confirms TikTok's growing importance in the hearts of European users but also makes more sellers realize that, powered by a highly active content ecosystem and strong user stickiness, TikTok Europe has amassed a vast traffic pool, laying a solid foundation for sustained e-commerce growth.

TikTok Shop's Performance in the European Market

TikTok's e-commerce venture in Europe first landed in the UK—the continent's largest e-commerce market. However, since its 2021 launch, TikTok UK's performance has been consistently "lukewarm," perhaps leading many sellers to underestimate the overall development potential of the European market. In reality, the European e-commerce market is also a trillion-dollar blue ocean. According to Statista, the European e-commerce market size is projected to reach $1.38 trillion in 2025, a growth of about 9.32% from 2024. This growth is primarily driven by mobile shopping adoption, the rise of social commerce, and cross-border consumption trends, with Germany, the UK, and France contributing over 50% of the share.

Observing TikTok's layout rhythm in Europe, its expansion follows a strategic path of "UK pilot → core market push → peripheral radiation." However, there was a significant time gap between the UK launch and subsequent openings in Spain, Germany, Italy, and France, reflecting the platform's cautious approach to the European market. Using the UK as a testing ground, TikTok continuously observed European users' acceptance and response to its e-commerce features. Only after further validating the business model feasibility and seeing clearer user feedback did it gradually open up core Western European markets. This year, the German, Italian, and French sites lived up to expectations. On its launch day, the German site achieved $40,000 in sales over 4 hours via automated live streams, with several short videos generating over $1,000 each. Moreover, during the TikTok Shop Europe Summer Sale, overall sales experienced explosive growth, showcasing strong commercial potential. Regarding future European market expansion, according to insights gathered by Muon Digital, TikTok plans to launch a Polish site in 2026, continuing to expand its e-commerce footprint across Europe.

Currently, the competitive landscape of the European e-commerce market closely mirrors its social media ecosystem: traditional giants dominate the base, while emerging forces like TikTok break through using content and algorithmic advantages. Legacy channels like Amazon and Zalando hold significant market share (over 45% combined). Although TikTok Shop currently holds only a 3.8% share (Statista 2024), it is experiencing meteoric growth at a staggering 190% rate. Short video "grass-planting" and live-streaming commerce transform shopping into entertainment, extending user dwell time; algorithmic recommendations precisely match user preferences, boosting product discovery efficiency by 300%; coupled with TikTok's social media attributes accumulating a vast pool of general traffic, these combined genetic advantages form the core drivers of its rapid rise.

Among TikTok's various European sub-markets, Germany and France currently garner more attention. A TikTok seller in Germany reported achieving over 1,000 daily orders in a short period through short video sales. However, looking at August category data from TikTok Shop European sites, the UK leads by a wide margin with 14.67 million units sold—nearly ten times Germany's volume. The sales scale of Spain, Italy, and France is merely a fraction of the UK's, and compared to the US and Southeast Asian markets, a significant gap remains in sales volume.

In terms of the number of active selling products, the UK also significantly outpaces other markets, indicating a richer product assortment. In contrast, the EU four still rely heavily on best-selling products to drive sales, leaving room for improvement in overall product diversity. Regarding average selling price (ASP), TikTok's European market price points fall within the €10-20 range, lower than the US market's average ASP of $22.52. Overall, European consumers appear more price-sensitive than their US counterparts, preferring lower-priced goods when product quality is assured. Compared to the UK, the higher market concentration in the EU four reflects sales being more concentrated among a few top sellers or bestsellers.

In summary, thanks to its earlier launch, the UK market has fostered more mature user habits and consumption momentum, exhibiting greater maturity in market scale, product diversity, and competitive concentration. The EU four markets are newer and overall less developed, hence displaying characteristics of smaller scale, reliance on a few bestselling items, and pronounced top-seller effects.

Looking at August sales channel distribution across TikTok Europe, product cards emerged as the core sales channel. The UK's product card share was notably high at 66.14%, far exceeding other countries. This might indicate that UK consumers have lower dependence on the "short video content seeding → order conversion" path, leaning more towards search-based conversion akin to traditional marketplace e-commerce. In contrast, short video sales shares in the EU four are highly similar and serve as the core sales channel. Live-streaming commerce penetration remains low across TikTok European sites, with the UK having the highest share at just 5.83%, indicating that live-stream e-commerce is still in its early developmental stages in Europe.

Currently, TikTok UK remains the core market in Europe. Although the EU four show rapid development momentum, their shorter operating history results in significant gaps compared to the UK in terms of market volume, product count, and seller numbers. The ultimate development outcomes for the EU four await the test of time.

TikTok Shop Europe: Opportunities and Challenges

If we roughly categorize TikTok Shop's launched markets, they can be divided into the US, Southeast Asia, Latin America, Japan, and Europe. As a region concentrated with developed countries, Europe's external environment is more stable than the US's; its per capita GDP is higher than Southeast Asia and Latin America's; and compared to Japan, TikTok Europe's competitive landscape is relatively calmer, with room for growth. Drilling down within Europe, the UK and the EU four (Germany, France, Italy, Spain) present different opportunity points.

For the UK market, the biggest opportunity lies in ecosystem stability—as seen in the earlier data, the UK remains TikTok's largest e-commerce market in Europe. TikTok Shop UK has established a mature consumption ecosystem with a sticky consumer base, providing more stable operating conditions for early-entrant sellers. A UK-based TikTok seller, Mr. Zheng, shared that their TikTok Shop store achieves monthly sales exceeding £100,000, with a comprehensive profit margin close to 30%, yielding decent returns while covering normal team operating costs.

However, for teams aiming for larger outcomes in the UK TTS market, its performance in recent years might not meet expectations. For instance, Yao Wang MCN, which once held the UK TikTok live-streaming sales record, recently informed TK Observer that they have exited the UK market to focus entirely on the US. Yao Wang's former UK TikTok e-commerce head also revealed that their European TikTok team has been disbanded.

The opportunity in the EU four lies in the first wave of traffic from newly opened markets and opportunities for standardized products. For new markets, the platform typically offers richer incentive policies. For example, at the "TikTok Shop Europe Cross-border PEAKS Operation Methodology" offline conference in early August, TikTok Shop Cross-border Self-Operation (POP) Senior Merchant Acquisition Manager stated that new merchants entering TikTok Europe can enjoy ultra-low commission rates for 60 days: 3% for the UK and as low as 2% for the EU four (France, Germany, Italy, Spain). During the growth phase, merchants completing specified GMV tasks can receive corresponding incentives—up to £12,000 for UK merchants and up to €6,000 for EU four merchants. Specifically for the EU four market, a "Mall Weekly Promotion" event offers up to 20% product subsidies. The platform also grants all eligible merchants short video promotion rights, with platform rewards up to $500. To incentivize more sellers to enter the European market and expand the seller traffic pool, the platform provides more generous operational benefits during the initial phase.

From a category perspective, the EU four currently have room for product category expansion. Current best-selling categories are overly concentrated in a few areas like beauty & personal care, women's clothing & lingerie, digital 3C, and fashion apparel. Data also confirms that market concentration in Germany, France, and Spain exceeds 14%, significantly higher than the UK's 8.51%. This means a small number of top sellers monopolize most traffic and sales through bestseller strategies, limiting the development of small and medium-sized sellers and further restricting category innovation and supply diversity. More notably, demand for localized, personalized products is rising among EU four consumers, but such SKUs currently account for less than 15% on the platform. A significant portion of this demand is still met by traditional e-commerce or offline channels, highlighting the vast market gap awaiting exploration for category expansion on TikTok Shop in the EU four.

The most prominent challenge for TikTok in Europe stems from the market's fragmentation. Dispersed market segments directly result in relatively limited individual market sizes, making it difficult for sellers to achieve substantial volume in any single market. A deeper challenge lies in the cultural, customary, and operational adjustments necessitated by this fragmentation. Despite TikTok offering a "One Shop for Five Countries" model, differences in language, consumer culture, and preferences across European nations pose significant hurdles for sellers in localization. For instance, German users demand "zero ambiguity" in product parameter descriptions, while French users prefer descriptions with emotional warmth. Such cultural and consumption habit differences further complicate seller operations. Sellers may need to tailor product selection, content, and operational strategies for each market, leading to increased operational costs and upfront trial-and-error expenses.

Furthermore, fragmentation leads to varying regulatory systems and logistics challenges. Although the EU has unified data privacy regulations, differences exist in national implementations of product standards, compliance certifications, and tax policies. For example, Germany has stringent energy efficiency labeling requirements for electronic appliances, while France mandates separate EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) declarations. Oversights can risk product takedowns. Sellers need clear understanding of these product certification requirements and market compliance rules before starting operations. Logistically, due to geographical differences, delivery times vary between regions. Using a unified overseas warehouse network might lead to delivery times exceeding user expectations, impacting user experience and repurchase rates. This pan-regional fragmentation requires TikTok sellers to possess refined operational capabilities—overcoming language barriers while adapting to regional regulatory and logistics systems—thus setting a relatively high localization threshold for the European market.

Mr.Austin, a seller in the TikTok France market, shared with Muon Digital that language is a significant barrier when operating in France. Additionally, having access to local French supply chain resources is now key to achieving results on TTS.

For TikTok, surpassing 200 million European MAU is not just a landmark in user scale but a clear signal of its intent to deepen e-commerce efforts in Europe. Within the "Scattered Europe" landscape, the platform is leveraging interest-based content and algorithmic strengths to weave a more coherent growth blueprint in e-commerce. For sellers, TikTok's European market presents both opportunities and challenges. Successfully crossing the localization threshold posed by fragmentation will allow them to further leverage traffic and platform policy support to unlock business growth potential.