TikTok: The culture that moves the world

TikTok’s Transformative Journey: Powering Global Culture, Creativity, and Commerce at Web Summit Lisbon 2025

TikTok has evolved beyond a mere entertainment app, becoming a formidable cultural and creativity-fueled growth engine. At Web Summit Lisbon 2025, Khartoon Weiss, VP, GM, NA & Global, Global Business Solutions at TikTok, highlighted the platform’s profound impact on global culture and economy. She emphasized its vibrant community, including 7.5 million small businesses in the US, empowered to build sustainable careers through comprehensive support, data insights, and AI amplification designed to enhance, not replace, human ingenuity. Global reach is also facilitated via language services.

The platform’s influence extends to significant real-world impacts. “Book Talk” has driven a remarkable 40% resurgence in global book purchases. Similarly, “Travel Talk” inspires users to explore diverse destinations, from major cities to national parks, based on authentic community recommendations, fostering genuine discovery.

Ms. Weiss shared a compelling anecdote from Lisbon: a small, family-owned leather glove shop experienced unprecedented demand and sold out completely after a viral TikTok video showcased their unique craftsmanship. This powerfully illustrates TikTok’s direct capacity to boost local economies and support small businesses beyond the digital sphere.

Platform responsibility, particularly trust and safety, is paramount for TikTok, serving 170 million users in the US and over 1 billion globally. The company implements robust safeguards, including over 50 preset protections for younger users, ensuring a secure and welcoming environment for its diverse user base.

TikTok maintains rigorous content moderation, achieving an impressive 99.2% accuracy rate in identifying and removing content that violates its community guidelines. This commitment to safety is further supported by transparency centers and regular reports, offering public insight into the platform’s moderation efforts and statistical data.

Artificial intelligence is integral to TikTok’s operations, primarily enhancing tooling, moderation, labeling, and operational efficiency. The company emphasizes that AI’s purpose is to amplify human creativity, not to supplant it, ensuring technology serves as a powerful enabler for its creative community and fosters responsible innovation.

Despite navigating considerable external scrutiny, TikTok’s internal culture remains remarkably optimistic. Employees are dedicated, building-oriented professionals who thrive on challenges, committed to out-sprinting, out-building, and out-thinking competitors. Looking forward, TikTok is steadfast in its commitment to redefining discovery and expanding opportunities for creators, including features like live commerce, continually shaping the digital media landscape.