TikTok, the viral video app, will ramp up its spending “across all functions” in the US and is considering how to let its users shop directly from brands, according to a senior executive, as the platform tries to convert its enormous popularity with teenagers into revenue.

Blake Chandlee, a former head of advertising at Facebook who is now in charge of building TikTok’s US ad partnerships, said “hundreds?.?.?.?if not thousands” of brands are already sold on the “hyper growth” of the app, which displays an endless scroll of 15-second video clips.

TikTok has moved into the former office of WhatsApp, Facebook’s messaging app, in Mountain View, California, and Mr Chandlee has been raiding his former employer for staff, most recently poaching Trevor Johnson, a senior Instagram executive in Europe.