TikTok has added a restaurant guide called Must Eat to its Local feed, the latest in a run of features that move the app from video towards shopping, travel and payments. TechCrunch argues that taken together they look like a super app in the style of WeChat. TikTok has not described its plans in those terms in the sources we reviewed.

What has launched

Must Eat compiles recommendations from more than 40 million posts, reviews and comments on the app, according to Tubefilter. Listings are split into “Everyday Eats” for affordable neighbourhood places and “Elevated Dining” for special occasions, and can be browsed by cuisine, price and location. Tubefilter reports that it is live only in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco for now.

The guide sits next to TikTok GO, the travel and experiences service launched in May 2026, which lets users find and book hotels and attractions without leaving the app.

Commerce and payments

TechCrunch’s overview adds the commercial base. It says TikTok Shop sales in the US grew 407% in 2024 and 108% in 2025, reaching $15.82bn, which gives the platform an 18.2% share of social commerce. It also reports that TikTok is developing peer-to-peer money transfers through direct messages using TikTok Pay, which already operates in Southeast Asia, and that the company has sought fintech licensing in Brazil. Other recent additions include sports hubs, casual games, microdramas and full-song playback through Apple Music.

According to TikTok’s own economic report, quoted by Tubefilter, 27 million Americans visited independent restaurants or shops after finding them on the app, generating an estimated $4.7bn in local spending. That is TikTok’s figure, and we have not verified it.

The UK and EU angle

Nothing in these reports says Must Eat or TikTok Pay are coming to Britain or Europe, and we have no information on timing. What follows is analysis. A payments product in the UK would need authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority or a partner that holds it, and in the EU it would fall under the payment services rules. The Brazilian licence application shows that TikTok is willing to go through that process market by market.

For European restaurants, hotels and small merchants, a larger TikTok means one more platform where discovery, booking and payment can happen in one place, with the platform deciding what appears. Existing review and booking services face a challenger that already has a large audience and a steady flow of fresh local video. For fintech founders, a social app with payments is both a possible partner and a rival for peer-to-peer transfers, a market that European neobanks and wallets already contest.

What to watch

  • Whether Must Eat expands beyond its three US launch markets, and to which countries.
  • Whether TikTok Pay’s peer-to-peer feature reaches the US or Europe, and under whose licence.
  • Brazil’s decision on the fintech licence application.
  • How merchants and review platforms respond if bookings and reviews increasingly start on TikTok.

Sources

Photo: TikTok app icon on a mobile phone, by Solen Feyissa, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.