TikTok is working on a way for users to send each other money inside direct messages, according to Bloomberg. The feature would run on TikTok Pay, the app’s existing payment system, Bloomberg reported. Natalie Lung and Alexandra Levine wrote that references to it sit in code hidden in the current version of TikTok’s US iPhone app.

The code points to a familiar design. A recipient would tap to accept a payment before it expires. The sender would then get updates through push notifications or their inbox, Bloomberg said. The code also hints at a message option. Users could attach a note to a payment, much like a Venmo caption.

TikTok has played the report down. A spokesperson told Bloomberg the feature is not being tested in any market, which suggests it remains in early development. There is no guarantee the company will ship it.

TikTok did not respond to a request for comment from TechCrunch. Apps often build and explore features that never launch, TechCrunch noted, and code alone is no promise of a product. Even if TikTok does add DM payments, it could be a while before users see them.

Another step toward a super app

The move fits a long pattern. TikTok has been pushing beyond video for years, and payments are the next piece. The desk has tracked that shift. It runs from the app’s wider super-app build to the broader race to fold money into social feeds, such as store cards inside ChatGPT.

Social platforms are chasing commerce to capture more spending and more data, Bloomberg reported. TikTok already sits at the top of the charts. Consumers worldwide have spent more than $2.9bn on the app so far this year, according to the market-intelligence firm Sensor Tower.

TikTok has been the top app globally by in-app purchase revenue since 2022, the firm said. In the US, people spend more on TikTok than on YouTube, Facebook or Instagram.

Money already moves through the app in other ways. Users buy digital coins to send as gifts to creators and livestream hosts, which can be cashed out. Many people also list a Venmo or Cash App handle in their bios so followers can pay them off-platform. A built-in transfer would keep that activity, and the fees around it, inside TikTok.

TikTok Pay is still a small footprint

The payment rails are not new, but their reach is narrow. TikTok Pay is currently live only in Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand, where it handles TikTok Shop purchases, Bloomberg said. A US rollout would be a significant expansion of the system.

In the US, TikTok Shop does not run on TikTok Pay at all. It accepts PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Klarna and Affirm, along with cards, Mashable reported. The scale of that shopping business is large. TikTok Shop users spent $50.3bn globally in the first half of this year, according to a report Mashable cited.

About $11.8bn of that came from the US, one of its largest markets alongside Southeast Asia.

A direct-payment button would put TikTok up against Venmo and Zelle, TechCrunch noted. It would also match a feature rivals already offer.

ByteDance has done this before

TikTok’s owner has a track record in payments.

Douyin, the version of the app ByteDance runs in China, already supports peer-to-peer transfers. It does so through its own Douyin Pay system, Mashable reported. Some ByteDance leaders working on payments are former JPMorgan executives, Bloomberg said. The bank once helped the company build its payments infrastructure.

The company is still expanding. Earlier this year, Reuters reported that TikTok applied to Brazil’s central bank for two licences. One would let it operate as a lender, the other to offer prepaid accounts, TechCrunch noted. Both TikTok and ByteDance are hiring for financial-services roles in the US and abroad, according to Bloomberg.

ByteDance took on a record $20bn loan this year to fund its wider ambitions.

The US ownership question

The payments push lands against a changed ownership structure. TikTok and ByteDance closed a deal this year to move parts of the US operation to American investors, including Oracle and Silver Lake. The arrangement was meant to avoid a nationwide ban, Bloomberg reported. ByteDance still holds a 19.9 percent stake, according to Mashable.

The political pressure has eased for now. This month, the Trump administration lifted its ban on TikTok on federal government devices, concluding the app was no longer a security risk, Bloomberg said. A domestic payments feature would test how far the app can extend into sensitive financial territory under its new structure.

The exploitation cases in the background

TikTok’s payment tools have drawn legal scrutiny. Some of them sit at the centre of lawsuits brought by state attorneys general, Bloomberg reported. The suits allege the features enabled sexual and financial exploitation of children. In some cases, they claim, the tools broke money-transmission laws or facilitated money laundering.

TikTok has settled several teen-harm cases rather than let them reach a jury, and separately kept a safety fix from millions of US users.

TikTok is not alone in the wider push. Elon Musk has spent the past year turning X into an “everything app”, and launched X Money to let some users send payments to one another, Bloomberg noted.

Facebook Messenger has offered peer-to-peer payments in the US since 2015. TikTok’s edge, if it ships, would be the commerce already running through the app. Whether the DM feature ever arrives is still an open question, and TikTok has said as much.

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