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Amazon and TikTok leave opening in next e-commerce boom
Flip, a 37-year-old Iraqi refugee’s app, seeks to take advantage of each giant’s shortcomings when it comes to social shopping.
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Flip, a 37-year-old Iraqi refugee’s app, is trying to fix a few e-commerce frustrations.
PHOTO: SCREENGRAB FROM JOINFLIP/INSTAGRAM
Dave Lee
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I am not yet totally sold on the idea of “social commerce”. The concept, already big in Asia, takes what was previously the role of the grinning influencer class and scales it out to just about everyone. Buy a product, make a video convincing your friends to buy it, make money, repeat. Icky, I think. The future, analysts say, is a US$100 billion (S$135 billion) market by 2025.
In the United States, capturing this opportunity is said to be a battle between two existing giants, in which each player has what the other wants.
