In today's ExchangeWire news digest: shopping on TikTok by UK consumers soars 553% over the past year; GameAnalytics launch GameIntel, a mobile intelligence platform to give publishers greater market insight; and consumer goods firm Perch have become the fastest company to achieve unicorn status in the US after a $775m Series A round.

Shopping on TikTok skyrockets over lockdown

Shopping on TikTok has exploded in popularity in the UK over the course of the pandemic, rising by an eye-watering 553% over the past year according to research from Bazaarvoice’s Influenster. The short-form video platform’s staggering growth bests that of their closest competitors by some margin, with Facebook seeing shopping increase by 160% and Instagram by 189% over the same period.

Despite this, the ByteDance-owned platform falls behind on social commerce, with just 24% of consumers shopping from the platform in contrast to Facebook’s 45% and Instagram’s 64%. Content aggregation platform Pinterest have emerged as a serious contender in the space, recording a 356% increase in consumers making purchases via the platform over the last 12 months.

The results indicate that social media’s influence over consumers’ shopping habits has increased, with 79% of the 3,272 respondents asserting that they are more likely to shop via a social platform now than they were a year ago. Furthermore, 70% claim to use social media sites to find new brands, and 49% said they had chosen to try a new brand over their usual provider as a result of social media. These findings show that maintaining customer loyalty will be a key challenge for brands, says Bazaarvoice SVP EMEA Ed Hill.

GameAnalytics launch mobile intelligence platform GameIntel to give gaming a “source of truth”

Analytics tools provider for game publishers GameAnalytics have launched GameIntel, a mobile intelligence platform built exclusively for gaming. Building on the company’s Benchmarks+ platform, the offering provides insights using data from the more than 140,000 games that have already integrated GameAnalytics.

Promising to give developers, publishers, and other gaming professionals “a reliable and flexible toolset through which to gain meaningful insights”, the offering will provide access to global market insights such as the best performing games and publishers, recently released titles, and trending games. GameIntel also hosts a “deep categorisation of more than 150,000 games across the entire store ecosystem, with game-specific mechanic level search capabilities to enable better market research,” says a company press release.

“When GameAnalytics first launched back in 2012, our key mission was to democratise analytics for game developers” said GameAnalytics founder & chairman Morten Wulff. “Our aim is to do the same for mobile intelligence; offering a market-leading, affordable service that gives developers of all shapes and sizes the insights they need to achieve success.”

Perch become fastest US unicorn after $775m investment

Technology-driven commerce firm Perch have become the fastest ever company to achieve unicorn status in the US. The achievement comes after the business, which acquires and scales-up Amazon third-party and D2C brands, announced the successful closure of a USD $775m (£548.9m) Series A funding round.

Led by the Softbank Vision Fund 2 and backed by Spark Capital and Victory Park Capital, the round is the largest Series A raised by a consumer goods company, and brings Perch’s total funding to over USD $900m (£637.4m). On top of their record-breaking achievements, the company have exceeded another significant milestone by acquiring over 70 brands, with several more currently under agreement.

Commenting on the funding, Perch CEO Chris Bell said "This investment is a powerful validation of our amazingly talented team, data-first playbooks, and long-term vision. […] Our highly analytical and tech-first approach allows us to innovate and automate at scale, driving efficiencies from supply chain logistics to listing optimisation. We plan to use these funds to invest in the team and platform, drive additional brand upside through additional channels and geographies, and continue to acquire the best products and brands."