u/Numerous-Coffee-8938

Hi everyone,

I'm building a Shopify app that integrates with the TikTok Marketing API.

During the TikTok Developer registration process, I'm asked to verify my phone number via SMS.

My issue is that I'm based in India, where TikTok is banned, and OTPs are never delivered to my +91 number.

Things I've already tried:

• Multiple resend attempts
• Different browsers
• VPN (US/Singapore)
• Email verification works, but phone verification does not

My questions:

1. Is TikTok blocking OTP delivery to Indian numbers?
2. Did anyone successfully register from India?
3. Is using a US/Singapore number the only practical solution?
4. Can an existing developer account add another team member so I don't need phone verification?

I'd appreciate hearing from anyone who has recently integrated the TikTok Marketing API or TikTok Shop API.

Thanks!

Hey devs,

I'm planning to build a Shopify app in the product/shopping feed space and want to sanity-check my market research with people who've actually built or used these apps, before I commit to an architecture.

What I already know:

The clear category leader is Simprosys Google Shopping Feed — sitting at roughly 4.9★ across 4,400+ reviews right now, supporting Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Pinterest feed submission plus PMax campaign management. It's by far the most dominant app here.

Below that, the next tier is:

• Multifeed Google Shopping Feed — ~1,000+ reviews, 4.9★, covers Google/Facebook/Awin feeds + conversion tracking
• Mulwi (200+ Shopping Feeds) — ~550+ reviews, 5.0★, broader channel coverage but newer/smaller review base

So the gap between #1 and everyone else is huge — Simprosys has roughly 4x the reviews of #2 and #3 combined.

What I'm trying to figure out:

1. Is review count actually a good proxy for active installs here? Given how dominant Simprosys is on paper, is that dominance real in terms of day-to-day active merchant usage, or is a chunk of that just legacy installs that never got removed?
2. Am I missing any major player? Scanning the App Store's Product Feeds category myself, I also see Omega Facebook Pixel Meta Feed, FeedHub, Nabu, and a handful of others with smaller review counts — are any of these actually punching above their review count in terms of real usage or merchant loyalty? Is there a feed app I'm not seeing that you'd consider a "real" competitor to Simprosys rather than a long-tail also-ran?
3. Where do the existing apps actually fall short? From the outside, my read is that Simprosys wins on breadth (15+ platforms, PMax support) but the UI feels dense/utilitarian — lots of settings screens, not a lot of visual polish. Is that a fair read, or is there something else going on under the hood (sync reliability, feed error handling, support responsiveness) that actually matters more to merchants than how it looks?
4. What should I prioritize technically before writing a single line of UI code? Feed generation at scale, handling Shopify's rate limits, GMC/Meta API quota management, real-time vs. scheduled sync — what's the thing that breaks first when a feed app scales past a few thousand SKUs?

My plan, for context:
I'm building a competing feed app, betting that UX/UI is the actual differentiator rather than channel count, since most merchants probably only need 2-3 channels well-executed rather than 15 channels mediocre. Launching with just Google and Meta to get those two genuinely right, then expanding to Microsoft, Pinterest, and Klaviyo once the core sync/UX is solid.

Would genuinely appreciate any war stories — what broke, what merchants actually complained about, what you wish someone had told you before building in this space.

Hey devs,

I'm planning to build a Shopify app in the product/shopping feed space and want to sanity-check my market research with people who've actually built or used these apps, before I commit to an architecture.

What I already know:

The clear category leader is Simprosys Google Shopping Feed — sitting at roughly 4.9★ across 4,400+ reviews right now, supporting Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Pinterest feed submission plus PMax campaign management. It's by far the most dominant app here.

Below that, the next tier is:

• Multifeed Google Shopping Feed — ~1,000+ reviews, 4.9★, covers Google/Facebook/Awin feeds + conversion tracking
• Mulwi (200+ Shopping Feeds) — ~550+ reviews, 5.0★, broader channel coverage but newer/smaller review base

So the gap between #1 and everyone else is huge — Simprosys has roughly 4x the reviews of #2 and #3 combined.

What I'm trying to figure out:

1. Is review count actually a good proxy for active installs here? Given how dominant Simprosys is on paper, is that dominance real in terms of day-to-day active merchant usage, or is a chunk of that just legacy installs that never got removed?
2. Am I missing any major player? Scanning the App Store's Product Feeds category myself, I also see Omega Facebook Pixel Meta Feed, FeedHub, Nabu, and a handful of others with smaller review counts — are any of these actually punching above their review count in terms of real usage or merchant loyalty? Is there a feed app I'm not seeing that you'd consider a "real" competitor to Simprosys rather than a long-tail also-ran?
3. Where do the existing apps actually fall short? From the outside, my read is that Simprosys wins on breadth (15+ platforms, PMax support) but the UI feels dense/utilitarian — lots of settings screens, not a lot of visual polish. Is that a fair read, or is there something else going on under the hood (sync reliability, feed error handling, support responsiveness) that actually matters more to merchants than how it looks?
4. What should I prioritize technically before writing a single line of UI code? Feed generation at scale, handling Shopify's rate limits, GMC/Meta API quota management, real-time vs. scheduled sync — what's the thing that breaks first when a feed app scales past a few thousand SKUs?

My plan, for context:
I'm building a competing feed app, betting that UX/UI is the actual differentiator rather than channel count, since most merchants probably only need 2-3 channels well-executed rather than 15 channels mediocre. Launching with just Google and Meta to get those two genuinely right, then expanding to Microsoft, Pinterest, and Klaviyo once the core sync/UX is solid.

Would genuinely appreciate any war stories — what broke, what merchants actually complained about, what you wish someone had told you before building in this space.