We don’t Google now, we TikTok

It might not have daily doodles, but when we’re looking for fluffy pancake recipes, fresh cleaning hacks, or monthly money tips, TikTok is fast becoming our first port of call.

More of us are turning to TikTok for our everyday searches, and that could be making Google nervous. Google, owned by Alphabet (GOOGL), made 81% of its revenue from advertising in the second quarter of 2022, up 12% year-on-year as people use their search for, well… everything. But could that start to come under pressure? Google’s own research shows that almost 40% of young people don’t go to Google Maps or Search when they’re looking for a place for lunch… they hit up TikTok or the ‘gram. 🍜

This makes a lot of sense. A picture is worth a thousand words. So actually seeing a restaurant experience can be a lot more help than a typical Google search. 😋 It’s the same reason Nike (NKE) has started putting photo booths and green screens in their stores. They want us to show the world. More concerning for Google though could be that TikTok has nabbed the top spot as the most popular web domain. Or that the increasing saturation of ads in search results means, actually, Google search just ain’t what it used to be.

Meta (META) may be nervous too. The company’s been trying to give Instagram the TikTok treatment by forcing us to watch more month-old reels from people we don’t know, instead of baby pictures from people we at least sorta know. 👶 The outrage was kwick, and enough to prompt Instagram to walk back some of the changes. But with Zuck vowing to double the number of AI generated videos forced onto our feeds, it may only be a matter of time before feeds as we know them are a thing of the past.