What if you could buy something on TikTok Shop and pay for it without relying on any third-party services? TikTok might be making that fantasy into a reality.
Bloomberg has reported that TikTok is planning to support direct payments through its TikTok Pay service. The report cites “code hidden in the current version of TikTok’s US iPhone app,” which alludes to a “tap to accept” feature that would be incorporated into TikTok’s DMs.
A TikTok spokesperson told Bloomberg that a feature of that nature is not currently being tested, so if TikTok is working on direct payments, then development is still in the early stages. TikTok Pay, which would power the rumored feature, is currently available in Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand.
Subscribe for daily Tubefilter Top Stories
The continued growth of TikTok Shop — which is expected to generate more than $100 million of GMV during the 2026 calendar year — gives TikTok a good reason to develop new financial services. In the regions where TikTok Pay is available, it is used to pay for TikTok Shop purchases. Expanding that system internationally would give TikTok more control over the transactions that are routed through its ecommerce hub.
Financial creators on TikTok, who can be found by searching for the #FinTok hashtag, present another entry point into the fintech industry. Buoyed by that community, TikTok applied for two interesting licenses earlier this year. One, a “direct credit company” license, would ostensibly turn TikTok into a virtual bank. The other would allow TikTok to operate as an “electronic money issuer,” similar to services like Venmo.
The rumored direct payment feature could very well be linked to that second license. The referenced code includes an allusion to comments that could be appended to individual transactions. So if Venmo is your favorite social network, TikTok might be working on a product that would excite you.
DMs, in general, have become a hotspot for new revenue streams on established social media platforms. Instagram’s famous DMs have been souped up with dozens of new features, while YouTube’s relaunched DMs are potent discovery tools. TikTok, it would seem, is trying to tie its DMs to its booming ecommerce operation, but based on the available information, it will be awhile before that plan comes to fruition.
