TikTok and Whatnot are driving the U.S. shopping livestream market into a full-fledged growth phase. The “live broadcast plus e-commerce” model, already a huge market in China, is drawing young U.S. consumers and sellers, CMBC reported on Sept. 1.

Market research firm EMARKETER forecast U.S. live commerce sales will reach about $19.8 billion this year, up 35 percent from last year. Given the market was $14.6 billion in 2025, it is a steep growth trend for a second straight year.

TikTok Shop is leading the growth. TikTok said U.S. shopping livestream sales in the first half of this year more than doubled from a year earlier, while the number of live sessions rose more than 60 percent and total broadcast hours increased more than 80 percent. Hair tool brand Beachwaver posted about $1 million in sales on TikTok Shop this year, with about a quarter coming from live broadcasts. QVC, a major TV home-shopping player, is also running more than 200 hours of live broadcasts per week across 7 TikTok channels after completing Chapter 11 restructuring last month.

Whatnot’s growth also stands out. Launched in 2019, Whatnot secured users through live auctions of collectibles and rare items, then expanded into categories including fashion and food. It raised an additional $545 million last month, winning a valuation of $20 billion. Its gross merchandise value was $8 billion in 2025, and gross merchandise value in the first half of this year has already surpassed last year’s full-year level, the company said.

TikTok also introduced a live auction feature this year, intensifying competition with Whatnot. For sellers, platform fees are a burden. TikTok Shop charges U.S. sellers a base selling fee of 6 percent, while Whatnot generally levies up to an 8 percent selling fee depending on the product category, plus a separate payment processing fee.

The gap with China remains large. China’s live commerce market has grown rapidly since Alibaba launched Taobao Live in 2016 and is forecast to top $1.1 trillion this year. The market is expanding in the United States as well, but managing counterfeit and stolen goods, seller fees and intensifying competition to secure viewers remain challenges to address.