Whatnot acquired the recommended system company Shaped and further invested AI at the core of the platform. The focus of the transaction was to increase the speed of recommendations for goods in the context of live live shopping, so that the system would be able to keep abreast of changes in stocks, auctions and buyers ' needs more quickly.
I recommend a system to target the live scene.
Unlike traditional electricians, whatnot's commodity pool is unstable. The live booth will continue to be open and closed, the auction may be completed in a few minutes or for hours, and user interests will change in a live broadcast.
Whatnot data and AI director Emmanuel Fuentes say that with access to Shaped technology, the platform wishes to make recommendations faster, more sensitive and more relevant to personal preferences. For live broadcasters, the recommended system not only determines what users want to see, but also keeps up with real-time changes in supply and the pace of competition.
The recommended delay has been reduced from one day to a few minutes.
Fuentes states that Whitnot has been optimizing the response rate of the recommended engine for the past six years and has reduced the delay from approximately one day to a few minutes. With the integration of Shaped, the Platform hopes to move the process closer to real time.
Whatnot claims that its system handles over 500,000 hours of live video per week and millions of live interactions. These data will be used on an ongoing basis to train and optimize recommended results.
- Over 500,000 hours per week of live video processing
- Millions of live interactions per week processed
- The recommended delay has been reduced from about a day to a few minutes.
Shaped team integrated into the new AI study Group
As the takeover is completed, Shaped founder and CEO Tullie Murray will join whatnot and be responsible for the newly established AI research team. They were joined by nearly 10 engineers and AI researchers. Public information indicates that Murray worked in Meta and then founded Shaped.
This acquisition took place at a time when whatnot expansion was accelerating. Founded in 2019, the company recently disclosed that the cumulative number of orders from platform vendors exceeded 1 billion. Earlier this year, Whitnot completed a $225 million F round of finance, valued at more than $11.1 billion, with 20 million new buyers over the past year.
Meanwhile, whatnot is expanding product coverage. The company added 35 or more items last year, including works of art, golf and gel; 45 or more items were added in the first half of 2025, and more classifications continue to be introduced on a monthly basis.
This also reflects the speed with which the introduction of AI is being speeded up on second-hand trading and live telecom platforms. In addition to whatnot, platforms such as eBay and Poshmark are also promoting capacity-building to improve the efficiency and transformation of commodity discovery.