The author's views are entirely his or her own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz.
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[1] to solve our need in the moment, but at the end of the day, TikTok and Google satisfy very different search intents.
Why do users search on TikTok?
We’re seeing TikTok take market share from Google[2] in verticals such as food, gardening, and travel. These are low stakes searches where the outcome is unlikely to cause you harm. Since you don’t need a perfect or factual answer, you can use TikTok to find it.
TikTok’s video format makes a lot more sense if you’re looking for answers where the visual matters. Date spots in your city or a gardening tutorial are perfect searches for the platform.
Another reason users choose TikTok is that the answer will always be provided by a subject matter expert, not a niche blogger. Social proof abounds, as you can assess the expertise of your source by looking at the comments and