TikTok‘s U.S. joint venture is leaning hard into the food creator community, launching a new product called Must Eat that is meant to boost food creators, as well as restaurants, all in service of helping its users find that next must visit place to grab a bite.
The company officially rolled out Must Eat at a reception held at Undercote in New York City Tuesday evening, with Adam Presser, the CEO of TikTok’s U.S. business, hosting food creators in the lounge.
“The first time that I came across FoodTok was actually before I joined the company, it was in the pandemic,” Presser told the attendees. “I came across the feta cheese pasta trend … So we were lucky enough to be able to get a block of feta cheese at that time, and we made the recipe, and it was incredible. And it was that first experience of being able to be watching videos, consuming content, and then translating that into real life experiences. And that journey has only continued on TikTok.
“The ‘lunch in my city’ trend has really driven a lot of momentum,” he continued. “I know some of the creators here have made content around that trend. I have tried it out, it’s fantastic. And over the last several years, we’ve just seen more and more people have this experience of discovering something on the platform and driving their in-real-life experience. I saw a stat last year: More than 27 million Americans went to an independent restaurant, cafe, or store in the U.S. that they had discovered for the first time on TikTok.”
So, Must Eat. The product is launching in New York, Los Angeles and the Bay Area, highlighting places in two categories: “Everyday Eats” and “Elevated Dining” featuring restaurants that have connected with TikTok food creators. TikTok also partnered with OpenTable to enable reservations at selected locations.
The product, an expansion of “Must GO” (focused on travel), is an example of how TikTok U.S. is trying to carve its own path forward, now 10 months or so into its new ownership structure.
For Presser, it is also a chance to bring his own imprint onto one of the biggest creator platforms in the country.
“I am an L.A. native, and probably like most people that grew up in L.A., I had dreams of working in entertainment, but any hope of working in front of the camera were quickly dashed — I think it was around the eighth grade play. I was assigned the role of lighting director,” he quipped Tuesday, noting that he went on to work in the music industry and later as an executive at Warner Bros. Discovery before joining TikTok some four and a half years ago.
“It was the first time that I really had the experience of realizing that you didn’t have to be at the top of the charts or on the big screen to be a star,” he said. “That it could be anybody with a voice, and a phone, and a vision, a creative perspective, and a platform like TikTok that could bring people’s voices to the world and have people discover the incredible, talented people that had something to say. So it is truly a dream come true.”
