The host says, “This could be yours, chat.” “wake it up.” The host’s face is hidden from view, with only his hands visible in front of a stack of iPhone, iPad and MacBook boxes. TikTok auctions start at $1. As the timer counts down, the price increases rapidly, with bids over $100 winning. After bidding closes, a digital prize wheel appears and rotates through several possible products before landing on the one the high bidder won: a teddy bear.
The winner was angry. “I just paid $147 for a stuffed animal,” he wrote in the stream’s chatlog. “When I was bidding, you said I could win that iPhone, and it gave me BB3 amount,” he said, referring to the Labubu-style plush, which sells for about $20. “This is a scam. Please return my money.”
This man was not alone in his frustration. Many viewers of the stream were angered when they placed high bids in hopes of scoring Apple devices, only to discover that their reward was a chance to spin a digital prize wheel that landed on something cheaper. “Dude, no. This is false advertising. Why would I pay $55 for a bad charger?” another angry bidder wrote. “Calling my bank right now.” Demand for refund was a common thing.
It’s all part of TikTok’s feature called “Surprise Sets,” where auction hosts create buckets of up to 500 products and whoever bids the highest walks away with a random selection of available prizes. These streams often include some big-ticket items, like iPhones and iPads, to entice viewers. The rest of the items are less desirable, like charging cords and pencil cases. The feature was added to the platform late last year and remains an invite-only feature for sellers on TikTok.
Many streaming set-ups for these TikTok “surprise sets” look very similar: piles of expensive products are shown on the screen, with different hosts gathering a few hundred concurrent viewers to bid for the maximum amount. If a viewer taps a small button in the lower left corner of the screen, they can see a full list of what items are still available, along with the live odds of winning each item.
The popularity of “surprise sets” on TikTok is emblematic of how gambling-like interactions currently dominate the experience of being online, where prediction markets and sports betting rule. People can also bet on the outcome of reality TV shows.
WIRED contacted TikTok for comment on Wednesday of last week to share examples of disappointed viewers who felt cheated. A day later on Thursday, TikTok changed its livestream policies and limited what hosts are allowed to do for “surprise sets.” (This is a policy update that TikTok claims was already in the works.) Hosts are no longer allowed to include iPhones, iPads, televisions, diamonds, gift cards or precious metals as part of the prizes available to viewers during surprise auctions. Following this rule change, hosts are following new guidelines, with no iPhones visible in the livestream “surprise sets” seen by WIRED.
“TikTok Shop requires all sellers, including those running surprise sets, to accurately represent what they are offering. We will take enforcement action on violations of our policies, including removing products and suspending accounts,” TikTok spokesperson Ben Rathe said in a statement to WIRED. If a buyer feels they have been misled, they can contact TikTok’s customer support to review the purchase.
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