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TikTok has absolutely taken the world by storm since 2020. And it’s not just for the kids — with over 1 billion users; it’s popular across all demographics.
User behavior on TikTok has been evolving as its popularity grows. We’ve seen the app go from dancing teenagers to influencing shopping behavior across the world.
Now the next step for TikTok seems to be turning into the next big search engine.

Is TikTok the new Google?

Short answer: no.
TikTok is an internal search engine for TikTok content. It’s dedicated to a particular area of focus and a particular format: video.
There are a few different factors at play in how we choose the search engine to solve our need in the moment, but at the end of the day, TikTok and Google satisfy very different search intents.

Active search vs. content discovery
There are two key behaviors on TikTok we must differentiate: active search and content discovery.

Content discovery

Content discovery is the main behavior on TikTok and it’s the one we’re most familiar with. It's when the user is scrolling through the app, passively hoping to find entertainment, financial advice, recipe ideas, or a new favorite beauty product.
Users have been enjoying a positive content discovery experience on TikTok for years. They have found new restaurants or a selfie angle that makes them look like Kylie Jenner.

This is the key to understanding TikTok’s rise as a search engine: This positive content discovery experience has earned the users’ trust. They know that the content they want to consume is on TikTok. So when the need arises, they turn to the video platform first.

Active search
This leads us into active search. Active search is when a user types a specific question into TikTok’s search box.

On TikTok, users can seamlessly scroll through all of the content that answers their query, without having to open multiple tabs on their browser. This improves user satisfaction, reduces friction and, most importantly, teaches TikTok the best answer.

She agrees with you. https://moz.com/blog/is-tiktok-the-new-google

I hope Elon can make Twitter into a super app and we can bid anything China goodbye.

Will TikTik replace Google? It depends on who you ask.

Unfortunately, Google has been going downhill for some time by being the big bully boy of Search Engines and moving goal posts around to make it difficult for bloggers to outrank Google's buddies at Amazon, Youtube, etc.
In recent times, Google search has gone from bad to worse, but they won't admit it.

Anyway, if we ask Google the question of this thread, they will use their "Featured Snippet" to provide the answer that suits Google!

See below: "Short answer: no. TikTok is an internal search engine for TikTok content."




Once you scroll past the featured snippet, the truth becomes clearer (but don't tell google).




I might have to check out TikTok. I thought it was just M to the B, M to the B, MMMM M to the B.

phuketrichard wrote: ↑Tue Jan 10, 2023 11:46 am And it’s not just for the kids

It is just for kids. Adults using it are suffering some form of mental impairment.

#ChangeMyMind

For people in early twenties it has has partly replaced Google already year ago. They don't google restaurant/sights recommendations, they check them from TikTok. And I do understand why. You get lot of information from a short video than long text and video. Even more than you could ever get from written text really.

Is there TikTok Maps , TikTok Earth, TikTok email, TikTok Playstore, TikTok Drive, TikTok Forms? I never noticed any of these, just kids doing dumb dances.

I just tried it and it's fucking rubbish.

Natural Language AI's will replace Google, not TikTok

No, but it's an extremely good way to do business. We've just bought a used 2016 Prius off my wife's beauty products and most sales come through TikTok.

TikTok profits from livestreams of families begging
12 October 2022

Displaced families in Syrian camps are begging for donations on TikTok while the company takes up to 70% of the proceeds, a BBC investigation found.

Children are livestreaming on the social media app for hours, pleading for digital gifts with a cash value.

The BBC saw streams earning up to $1,000 (£900) an hour, but found the people in the camps received only a tiny fraction of that.

TikTok said it would take prompt action against "exploitative begging".

The company said this type of content was not allowed on its platform, and it said its commission from digital gifts was significantly less than 70%. But it declined to confirm the exact amount.

Earlier this year, TikTok users saw their feeds fill with livestreams of families in Syrian camps, drawing support from some viewers and concerns about scams from others.

In the camps in north-west Syria, the BBC found that the trend was being facilitated by so-called "TikTok middlemen", who provided families with the phones and equipment to go live.

The middlemen said they worked with agencies affiliated to TikTok in China and the Middle East, who gave the families access to TikTok accounts. These agencies are part of TikTok's global strategy to recruit livestreamers and encourage users to spend more time on the app.

Since the TikTok algorithm suggests content based on the geographic origin of a user's phone number, the middlemen said they prefer to use British SIM cards. They say people from the UK are the most generous gifters.

For five months, the BBC followed 30 TikTok accounts broadcasting live from Syrian camps for displaced people and built a computer program to scrape information from them, showing that viewers were often donating digital gifts worth up to $1,000 an hour to each account.

Families in the camps said they were receiving only a tiny fraction of these sums, however.

With TikTok declining to say how much it takes from gifts, the BBC ran an experiment to track where the money goes.

A reporter in Syria contacted one of the TikTok-affiliated agencies saying he was living in the camps. He obtained an account and went live, while BBC staff in London sent TikTok gifts worth $106 from another account.

At the end of the livestream, the balance of the Syrian test account was $33. TikTok had taken 69% of the value of the gifts.
In full: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-63213567