YouTube’s social commerce bet: Still in the game, but playing the long strategy

“We’re certainly investing a lot in making shopping successful,” YouTube’s vp of engineering Geoff van der Meer told Digiday at a press event last week in Zurich. “We obviously try to launch products globally. But shopping is inherently a country by country game, because it really comes down to us working with local merchants on a country by country basis, and that takes time.”

As expected, he kept the details vague. But Digiday has learned that YouTube is watching Southeast Asia’s social commerce scene closely, particularly with its recent expansion of the YouTube Shopping affiliate program in partnership with Shopee. In Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, viewers can buy products featured in YouTube videos via embedded Shopee links. If the experiment gains traction, it — or rather elements of it — could make its way to Western markets, including the U.K., according to an ad exec who was granted anonymity to speak candidly.

YouTube launched its first shopping channel in South Korea in June 2023 with about 30 brands and a focus on live shopping. In the same year, the platform launched its Shopping affiliate program in the U.S. to select creators. And by August 2024, this was expanded to include more U.S.-based creators and Shopify merchants as part of its partnership with Shopify.

According to Lucia Terrenghi, senior director of YouTube UX, the team is designing its commerce product as a second screen.

“What you see on the [TV] screen, you can then look at the price and purchase it on your phone,” she said. “We see that women in particular are a target group for that multi-screen interaction, going from passive to engaged users.”

Whatever commerce updates YouTube rolls out, don’t expect a copy-paste job from its efforts in Southeast Asia or anywhere else for that matter. Instead, any additional Western iteration will be tailored to fit local shopping behaviors and market nuances.

Commerce remains one of the last frontiers for social platforms, ripe with potential but stubbornly difficult to crack. Despite their best efforts, most have struggled to make it a meaningful revenue driver on a global scale. Take TikTok Shop: While it’s certainly made waves, it’s still unclear whether its grand vision of turning livestream shopping into a U.S. staple is actually taking hold.

“Social commerce has been a feature that platforms have had their eyes set on for a few years,” said Shamsul Chowdhury, vp of paid social at Jellyfish. “Everyone [social platforms] is keen to replicate the success of WeChat in China, but that success hasn’t [yet] translated to the Western part of the world.”