The next company to try to increase interaction from a social feed like to TikTok is Amazon. The e-commerce behemoth joins a long list of businesses that have come up with a similar concept: LinkedIn, YouTube, Spotify, Netflix, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest, and... The IRS app that records your tax refund may soon feature a vertical video feed.
An artificial intelligence startup called Watchful claims that Amazon is exploring a vertical photo and video feed within its employee-only app. The feed, now known as "Inspire," will show up on the Amazon app's bottom navigation bar, according to images Watchful gave the Wall Street Journal. Users can view posts on the feed and connections to products by tapping the diamond-shaped icon.
This isn’t the first time that Amazon has followed the same tactics as major social apps. It even has a post, an Instagram copycat feature, as part of its advertising tools. Of course, Amazon has also invested in influencer marketing and live shopping, a feature that Facebook will soon sunset to focus on … you guessed it, its TikTok competitor.
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Amazon’s TikTok clone doesn’t come totally out of the left field, though. On TikTok, Amazon product recommendations are extremely popular — the tag #amazonfinds has 25.6 billion views. Some influencers have amassed millions of followers solely by finding interesting Amazon products to recommend to their audience, earning a commission if the viewer uses their affiliate link. So, it makes sense that Amazon may want its customers to find these “Amazon must-haves” natively on its app rather than through TikTok or Instagram Reels.
It’s not clear whether this feature will eventually roll out on the Amazon app — companies often test feature ideas internally, even if some may never ship to the public. Consumers might find Amazon’s native marketing less authentic than a social media post, but it’s pretty clear that most of that product recommendation TikTok videos are also just part of a money-making machine (why else would so many people make beautiful TikTok grids where they only post videos of cute Amazon gadgets?).
