TikTok's Dominance is Now Expanding into News and Search, According to New Reports
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Loading... - Jerome Ariti
- 22 Jul 2022
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TikTok’s meteoric rise is both undeniable and unprecedented, sparking whole new trends in content consumption that have flowed onto virtually every other form of media in some capacity.
And new reports show that TikTok’s influence may be extending well beyond entertainment alone, with younger users in particular now increasingly relying on the app for search and discovery, and for keeping in touch with news content.
Which, given TikTok’s long-speculated links to the Government, could be a cause for some concern.
In regards to search, earlier this week, as part of a panel discussion at Fortune’s ‘Brainstorm Tech 2022’ event, Google’s Senior Vice President Prabhakar Raghavan, noted that younger users were now often turning to Instagram and TikTok, instead of Google’s apps, for discovery purposes.
As per Raghavan:
“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.”
That’s not overly surprising, given the ubiquity of these apps, and their popularity among younger audiences. But it is interesting to see TikTok mentioned specifically as a key platform for search, which is not a usage behavior that most would instinctively attribute to the app.
Worth noting, too, that Instagram launched new business listing tools within its Map element this week, leaning further into this trend.
In addition to this, Ofcom’s annual report also showed that, for teenagers aged 12-15, Instagram is now the most popular news platform, followed closely by TikTok and YouTube. Read More...
