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TikTok Becoming Gen-Z’s New Google

TikTok looks to be dethroning Google as the primary source people look to for information, or at least it is for Gen-Z

According to Bloomberg, more than a third of TikTok’s over 1 billion users are Gen-Z members, many of which are now using the app for general search functions and as a place to find information, much to the dismay of search giants such as Google.

Whilst TikTok’s sales are set to reach $12 billion USD ($17.2 billion AUD) this year, a tiny number compared to Google and Facebook, it will be triple the company’s sales of last year, and a massive number for a company with only a 5-year history.

More importantly however, TikTok’s hold over Gen-Z is not to be underestimated. The high population of users aged between 10 and 25 on TikTok is an attractive prospect for technology and advertising companies, as they are in an age group still developing their shopping habits.

According to Prabhakar Raghavan, senior vice president at Google, around 40% of young people (aged 18 to 24) are using TikTok or Instagram for finding lunch recommendations.

The one silver lining for Google in the latest findings is that it is able to argue against the multiple antitrust lawsuits its currently facing, as it points out the strength of it’s rivals and the resulting lack of dominance that suggests the company has over the market.

“We keep learning, over and over again, that new internet users don’t have the expectations and the mindset that we have become accustomed to.” Raghavan told TechCrunch. “The queries they ask are completely different.”

TikTok is providing young people with relevant data quickly and conveniently, allowing them to skip the long searches for relevant information.

Bloomberg tells the story 24 year old Ezinne Ogbonna, a Dallas based software sales person who “wouldn’t be in the career position [she’s] in now at [her] current job, if it wasn’t for TikTok.”

“I actually found a training program through someone’s TikTok, did the training program and then landed the job that I have now,” she said.

Similarly, Leia Getahoun was able to find relevant nightlife almost instantly upon her arrival in New York.

“It’s my first week in New York, and I’m like, ‘OK, where are the good clubs that will have a lot of Black people and good music,’” she said.

“After looking around I went to an event in the city that I found on TikTok and had so much fun, the atmosphere was great.”

The appeal to young people is the visual medium, which is able to get information out in an attractive rapid way under the guise of entertainment.

“We’re just like kids who don’t like to read books,” said Getahoun.

“You give them a picture book and suddenly they start seeing the vision.”

However, as much as TikTok is gaining traction with a younger audience, many still don’t trust the platform, which is owned by China’s ByteDance Ltd, a company that has worried US regulators, who are concerned that user data is ending up in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.

TikTok management has said that China-based employees are indeed able to access the information of US-based users but denies that the data is going to the CCP.

A survey by UK regulator said that whilst TikTok is the fastest growing source of news for adults in the UK, the service, as well as other social media platforms, are only trusted by a third of users.

Businesses on the other hand are thriving thanks to what TikTok offers, allowing them to upload short, eye-catching promotions in a format that’s attractive to a growing audience.

At the forefront of TikTok’s workings is their ‘For You Page’, which tailors posts to a user’s needs, using an algorithm that learns what you want to see. A small oat-milk ice cream shop called Whipped Urban Dessert Lab has seen it’s sales increase 150% after their clips attracted over 73,000 TikTok Users.

“Social media was extremely important for us, not only for people to be able to see your product when they can’t experience it for themselves, but also for mass messaging,” said Zan B.R., co-founder of the company alongside Courtney Blagrove.



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