While TikTok has gone up against some big players the likes of Facebook, Instagram, and even YouTube, could it also eventually become a competitor for Google when it comes to web search and discovery?
Google’s Senior Vice President Prabhakar Raghavan recently shared that the search giant does indeed note that TikTok is a growing risk, further noting that:
“In our studies, something like almost 40% of young people, when they’re looking for a place for lunch, they don’t go to Google Maps or Search. They go to TikTok or Instagram.”
TikTok Search
This isn’t overly surprising, but the volume of searches that could imply is significant, with hundreds of millions of searches being conducted every minute via Google’s apps. If TikTok and Instagram are eating into this, then that could have big implications, not just for Google, but also for brands looking to connect with younger audiences, maximizing their discovery opportunities.
Ever heard of TikTok SEO? The idea of a TikTok search engine isn’t a complete novelty. Back in 2019, investment firm Anderseen Horowitz highlighted the potential of TikTok as a search engine, based on how Chinese users were evolving the use of Douyin – the Chinese TikTok. In China, Douyin has become an eCommerce powerhouse. Parent company ByteDance has been pushing to transform TikTok to be more aligned with Western markets – so far it has only been mixed results.
Raghavan’s comments do point to discovery as a significant opportunity, and with more and more young users referring to TikTok clips to discover the latest trend and products. This should be on the radar of all brands, as a potential avenue to reach new audiences, maximizing interest online. This sentiment is becoming common, with TikTok leaning more into discovery with a range of new features, aside from its main eCommerce push.
TikTok recently began experimenting with linked keywords in comments and video descriptions, which guides user discovery by connecting them to broader trends. Based on samples posted by user Olivia Deng, certain keywords now auto-link to search results for that term, helping facilitate more product discovery. Of course, this still ultimately leans into TikTok’s in-stream shopping.
The Wrap
Data from Cloudflare indicated that TikTok overtook Google as the most visited website back in 2021, meaning that TikTok was becoming a key destination for discovery this 2022. So, does that mean that we should all start creating our own TikTok SEO strategy? Though it seems unusual, the stats don’t lie, and the insights here do suggest that product discovery is rising in the app. It’s highly possible that even bigger opportunities are on the way for TikTok.
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