TikTok’s ambitions to become a new and exciting alternative to traditional social engines have been made official with a new 60-second ad.
The ‘Search it, learn it, do it with TikTok’ video features a father moving into a new home, ably assisted by his daughter for furnishing and culinary inspiration.
But instead of turning to Google to find new frames, books and recipes, TikTok is the search engine of choice.
This might come as a surprise if you haven’t been keeping an eye on TikTok’s pivot from just a short-form clip site to an all-singing and dancing content hub.
In the video, the daughter uses the #Booktok hashtag to refresh an outdated bookshelf.
A ‘quick budget recipes’ search then throws up a number of clips of delicious meals being prepared to solve a dinner dilemma.
Additional searches also help the duo clean a carpet and source and hang new prints on the wall.
The ad shows how people find the information they need online is completely changing.
Mashable’s Elena Cavender spoke about this phenomenon which is seeing younger people use TikTok, as well as Instagram, to “search for things to do and places to try”.
Instead of using Google Maps and Google Search, Gen-Z is getting all of their answers on social media.
It’s a profound change and one Google has admitted is a threat to their traditional search engine model.
The tech giant’s senior vice president, Prabhakar Raghavan, recently revealed that 40% of the upcoming Gen-Z cohort is turning to TikTok to find local restaurants.
It’s not just teens, though – a UK study also found TikTok is also quickly becoming the destination of choice for adults for news content.
TikTok has recognised this, which makes the latest ‘Search it with TikTok’ campaign a smart ploy to confidently strengthen its recent evolution.
And while classic search engines aren’t going the way of the dodo just yet, we might be seeing the shoots of a completely new SEO and search experience.
