Location doesn't matter anymore: TikTok Exec

Daily Express

4 days ago

Published on: Wednesday, July 16, 2025
Published on: Wed, Jul 16, 2025
By: Jessie Lee Text Size: Alan Chan, TikTok Asia-Pacific Managing Director, who previously led regional expansion for Alibaba and Lazada, shared his insights recently at Jesselton Quay Sky Gallery. Kota Kinabalu: Imagine launching a business, not in a mall, not on a high-traffic street, but in a quiet spot where walk-ins are rare. To most, that would sound like a mistake, but not to Alan Chan. The TikTok Asia-Pacific Managing Director who previously led regional expansion for Alibaba and Lazada shared his insights recently at Jesselton Quay Sky Gallery, here.
Advertisement Through real-world lessons from his time in the digital trench, he made one thing clear – the way people discover businesses has changed. 'When I first went to China in 2010, Taobao was already the biggest app. And you know what is crazy? If you look at their homepage today, it is almost the same,' he said. China's largest online marketplace, he explained, has kept its interface largely unchanged despite a decade of digital innovation. This reflects what Alan calls a 'lean forward experience', where users are actively searching to shop. But platforms like TikTok are different as they represent a 'lean back experience', one where discovery happens while users are relaxing. He gave a personal example of buying a karaoke machine during a 20-minute ride home, after watching a TikTok livestream. 'I had no intention of buying one. But by the time I got home, I had already placed the order,' he said. The host sang live, answered questions in real time and showed how the machine worked with old TVs, enough to convert him from viewer to buyer. 'On TikTok, it is very vibrant, because you can see a lot of entrepreneurs. 'They can be students, homemakers or part-timers, but important to note here is that you need to pay to use them,' he said. Beyond its creator ecosystem, Alan said TikTok's monetisation model demands a shift in mindset. 'If you sell a bottle for RM100, the platform takes RM25,' he said, explaining that instead of spending big upfront, sellers only pay as sales come in. 'In the old way, you start a new brand, you spend RM1 million on advertising, outdoor, absolutely. But nowadays, you can plan it with your margin. So as you sell, you burn up. It is a different way of doing business,' he said. For sellers, the next step is choosing how to drive that discovery. Alan compared livestreaming and short videos as core sales tools. 'Livestreams are high-converting, like 'lunch and dinner', but require more effort. The golden hour is 8pm to 10pm, that is when people buy,' he said. He said short videos, on the other hand, are like 'snacks', easier to scale and continue to perform over time, but both are important. Another key sales feature is TikTok's 'yellow bag', a shopping cart icon that lets users check out directly inside the app. 'On other platforms, you click out, copy links, message sellers, it is slower. 'On TikTok, conversion happens inside the content,' he said, adding that while these in-app tools boost speed, external chats add value to customer relationship management. Yet even with the right tools, for many businesses, content creation is a balancing act of cost, speed and ownership. '[Sometimes], you only pay the rent, but the land is not yours,' Alan said, referring to how some may pay for videos they do not fully own when working with external creators, at times facing the risk of sample loss. He shared how sellers in China are turning to AI as one shoot can generate dozens of videos with different selling points, targeting different buyers with the same video. During the Q&A session, Alan encouraged local businesses to position themselves on platforms like Douyin and Meituan which travellers often consult before even booking their flights. 'If your customers are coming from China, advertise where they are, before they even leave,' he said. For Alan, success comes down to platform strategy and execution, not just location. With the right content, visibility and mindset, he believes location is no longer the barrier it once was.
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