Tiktok Stirs up the Food Industry as It Enters The Kitchen
The social media giant’s plans to monetize viral food trends has users licking their lips
TikTok had one hell of a 2021. Turbocharged by the pandemic restrictions, the site reached the landmark of 1 billion monthly users and even surpassed Google to become 2021’s most visited domain. Fresh off the news, the company announced its latest evolution; TikTok is entering the kitchen to monetize food trends.
In partnership with Virtual Dining Concept (the ghost kitchen behind the hugely successful Mr Beast Burgers), TikTok is launching delivery-only kitchens across the United States, with the first slated to open at the beginning of March. The concept is simple; a menu will rotate quarterly to include the hot new food trends enjoying virality on the platform — think cloud bread, pancake cereal, feta pasta and hot cocoa bombs — and users will be able to order them from a TikTok branded ghost kitchen nearby.
For the uninitiated, ghost kitchens are kitchen units set up to cater to multiple, typically virtual, brands. Their prevalence has skyrocketed with the massive surge in-home delivery that came with the stay-at-home restrictions. The kitchen cooks each ‘restaurant’ item and bags them up in supplied branded packaging. The customer is often…
