Whatnot nears $1B in revenue as scrutiny over live-shopping spending grows

What's the deal? Whatnot, the live-shopping app, has raised nearly $975 million to date and holds an $11.5 billion valuation, backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, CapitalG, and others. The seven-year-old company is now one of the fastest-growing shopping platforms in America.

By the numbers: Whatnot is on track to surpass $1 billion in revenue this year and added 20 million new accounts in 2025. It estimates that it holds nearly 60% of the live commerce market in North America and Europe.

What's the endgame? The app lets people bid around the clock on trading cards, squishy toys, designer fashion, and instant ramen, auctioned live in high-energy shows. It supercharges sites like eBay and Amazon with countdown auctions and hosts who urge buyers to bid higher and faster.

What could go wrong? Critics say the design encourages overspending and that Whatnot does too little to combat fraud and underage use. One user, a 45-year-old accountant, spent almost $1.4 million within four months—drawing on savings, personal loans, and his employer's company credit card—before his wife filed for divorce.

Mark Leiser, an expert on deceptive design who taught digital law at Leiden University, said the auctions leave no meaningful moment of decision, calling the effect a "degradation of consent." Chief executive officer and co-founder Grant LaFontaine rejected the characterisation, pointing to the app's 4.7 rating in the Apple app store and saying overspending hasn't registered as a significant problem in the company's data.

The product response: Whatnot last year introduced optional account controls for spending limits and watch-time caps. Last week, it began rolling out a tool that pauses spending immediately, and it plans to test a passcode-restricted buying step to add friction before purchase. The company also doubled its trust and safety team, now about a third of its roughly 1,200 employees.

The signal: Whatnot's rise shows how live commerce is fusing social-media engagement with real-time buying—and how fast that model can scale revenue. But as scrutiny of the design mounts, the sector faces the same consumer-protection questions that have dogged the platforms it borrows from.

Read more: The Wall Street Journal

Image credit: Generated with Gemini