The introduction of TikTok has revolutionized the world in

bringing the short videos into a single device, also known as a

“smartphone”. TikTok is a current type of video-sharing online platform
that can satisfy self-expression, sense of achievement, social
interaction, and escapism (Omar and Dequan, 2020 ). Its usage and
influence in adolescence have grown rapidly at the very first place
since its advent, especially during the Lockdown period due to the
Covid-19 pandemic. TikTok became one of the most popular apps in the
world, according to data from Sensor Tower (Chapple, 2020 ). As of
January 2021, it was revealed that TikTok has ranked fourth among
the top five platforms. The ranking was based on cumulative time spent
by users averaging about 13.8 h per month( Kemp, 2021 ). From this all
data, we can see the popularity of TikTok is spreading all over the
world, even particularly in Viet Nam. 

TikTok Shop is one of the social commerce platforms where users

can create content for promotion as well as sell their products there like
e-commerce with many product catalogs. The major content at TikTok
then develops with product information such as unboxing or reviews
which previously makes the appearance of TikTok Shop feature (Sri
Nuryani, Willem Paul Pattiwael and Muhammad Iqbal, 2022 ). This
directly causes the emergence of the TikTok Poison phenomenon that
some of its users are the millennial generation, giving rise to consumptive
behavior (Triyanti at al., 2022). Early research also stated that the
process of purchasing products in this entertainment platform is impulse
purchase which is even seen as excessive. They also bring out the several
factors that influence the purchasing decisions of buyers such as price
perceptions, motivation, promotions, discounts and positive emotions or
attitude (Hermayanti & Susantiaji, 2022). Previous studies revealed that
customers now rely on social media as an information source in the
purchasing process (Alalwan, Rana, Dwivedi, & Algharabat, 2017; Teng,
Khong,Chong, & Lin, 2016 ). The central technology for TikTok is the AI
algorithm, which provides the universal product that will determine video
recommendations based on learning users’ preferences and usages of the
app, which is a unique advantage. Furthermore, TikTok enables users to
directly purchase products or services from the video or even live
broadcast visiting stores in a city or hotel rooms. It features elements
of social networking and video-sharing platforms to deliver a new way to
create value for consumers. In addition, TikTok benefited from China’s
IT strength supported by national high-tech policy to an AI-based
recommendation algorithm as a non-location bound resource. (Yulun Ma
and Yue Hu, 2021 ).

Seeing the fact that TikTok is, up to now, not only a short video-
sharing entertainment platform, but also a social multi-functional
application integrated with online trading feature, it is comparatively
essential to focus deeply on understand its operation, and popularity of
the social media that has millions of followers and how it relatively
became more popular compared to its competitors in the same fields
since its establishment in 2019. We aimed to conduct this study to
further examine the competitive advantages of TikTok, particularly
the TikTok shop, their relationships with the behaviors’ intention and
adoption of its Gen-Z users, as gen-Z is considered as one of the major
customers of TikTok (Mackenzie and Nichols, 2020; Wang et al., 2019),
by using a qualitative approach. UTATM serves as a broad theoretical
underpinning to understand the intention of purchasing on TikTok Shop.
Inductive qualitative content analysis is used to analyze competitive
advantages that can influence the behavioral intention and adoption of
purchasing on TikTok Shop of TikTok users. 

This study contributes to knowledge on TikTok and TikTok Shop

by providing a comprehensive understanding of the effects of several
special objective factors of TikTok, particularly TikTok Shop.
Additionally, this study provides an interactive and sequential
perspective to understand distinguishing features of TikTok by
presenting a framework of competitive advantages. Study findings also
offer new insights for research on behavioral intention of TikTok and
TikTok Shop users.

Chapple, C. 2020. TikTok generates record 113 million downloads in February, nearing 2 billion lifetime installs. SensorTower.
[Cited 7 April 2020]. Available from URL: https://sensor- tower.com/blog/tiktok-record-revenue-downloads-february-2020

Kemp, S. (2020, February 18). Digiatal 2020: Indonesia.

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2021-indonesia

Triyanti, M. D., Merah, E. L. K., Gratia, G. P., Paringa, T., & Primasari, C. H. 2022. Fenomena Racun
Tiktok Terhadap Budaya Konsumerisma Mahasiswa Di Masa Pandemi COVID-19. Konvergensi
Teknologi Dan Sistem Informasi, 2(1), 193–200.

Hermayanti, A. W., & Susantiaji, A. 2022. Analisis Pembelian Impulsif Di Pasar Modern Kota Tegal
Pada Saat Pandemi COVID-19. Jurnal Monex, 1(11), 49–60.

https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/INTR-08-2021-0595/full/
pdf?title=how-tiktok-leads-users-to-flow-experience-investigating-the-effects-of-
technology-affordances-with-user-experience-level-and-video-length-as-
moderators

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/
057C8387EC953C14ED10AA8996F53947/S1740877620000698a.pdf/business-
model-innovation-and-experimentation-in-transforming-economies-bytedance-
and-tiktok.pdf

https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S1029313222000392?
token=E2CC588440C55F7F2EB6D2002BECE7E9F39C525ED9E35C57B23AE9
F355147CB439A52A205C2E8F79CD7D8287E5611A9A&originRegion=us-east-
1&originCreation=20221020024644
https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S0160791X21002426?
token=095E58FC3CEC82A4F677DC12723DCD08A2DAA7083AC8B2DBC5085
3C25D38DA59D8B82E5D0892E63DBD768E7A65D07F37&originRegion=us-
east-1&originCreation=20221013084101

https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S2666915321001451?
token=8153132447FD6E3FED38DD7B4C6E746C88931BD9B7C8DB145FAB5B
326031BE18A9E78E8E36C1C254F74ECBAA3BAEE9F0&originRegion=us-
east-1&originCreation=20221013083815

https://vov.vn/cong-nghe/tin-moi/tiktok-dang-gianh-nguoi-dung-cua-facebook-
post928385.vov

https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S2444569X22000762?
token=068C70179DEABD37E6B5649787448A6FB5BCB5408970D8AD0762F4
B6BB4A46D1015A3F46A61762C050A0B8E63B06D8FA&originRegion=us-
east-1&originCreation=20221013083053
  TikTok has become too famous to ignore it,
regarding every aspect in daily life, and especially in
researching. As we can see, TikTok … (1).
But we will not investigate into this app in the
perspective as a social media, we deeply research it as
an online purchasing “place”. As now TikTok Shop
appeared, and quickly gain great attraction from online
buying nerd, especially the Gen Z. TikTok Shop is one
of the social commerce platforms where users can create
content for promotion as well as sell their products
there like e-commerce with many product catalogs.
We did look up a plethora of document on this
topic. And I have to say, quite proudly, there are not
many, or I can say our topic is just very necessary.
Our gap is, of course, what earlier studies lack.
Seeing the fact that TikTok is, up to now, not only
a short video-sharing entertainment platform, but also
a social multi-functional application integrated with
online trading feature, from that we conduct our survey
with a view to getting deep understanding the reason
why TikTok Shop relatively became more and more
competitive compared to its competitors, as mention to
an online purchasing "place", based on its own
objective advantages.
More specifically, we will examine the competitive
advantages of TikTok, particularly the TikTok shop,
their relationships with the behaviors’ intention and
adoption of its Gen-Z users.
The small following part is brief mention to
research method.