Since 2020, TikTok has completely taken over the world. And it’s not just for kids; with over 1 billion users, it appeals to people of all ages.

TikTok user behavior is changing as the app’s popularity grows. We’ve seen the app evolve from teenagers dancing to influencing global shopping behavior.

TikTok appears to be on its way to becoming the next big search engine.

Is TikTok becoming the new Google?
The short answer is no.

TikTok’s internal search engine searches TikTok content. It focuses on a specific topic and uses a specific format: video.

There are several factors at play in how we choose the search engine to solve our current need, but in the end TikTok and Google, at the end of the day, serve very different search intents.

Why do users search on TikTok?

TikTok is stealing market share from Google in verticals such as food, gardening, and travel. These are low-stakes searches in which the outcome is unlikely to harm you. TikTok can help you find an answer because you don’t need it to be perfect or factual.

If you’re looking for answers where the visual is important, TikTok’s video format makes a lot more sense. Date spots in your city or a gardening tutorial are ideal platform searches.

Another reason users prefer TikTok is that answers are always provided by a subject matter expert rather than a niche blogger. Social proof abounds, as you can judge your source’s expertise by looking at the comments and number of views, likes, and followers.

Some people have expressed concerns about the spread of misinformation on TikTok, as they have on most other content platforms. TikTok, on the other hand, has an unprecedented potential for virality and a large, young user base that is more easily influenced during content discovery than during active search.

TikTok content is even being searched for on Google, with queries such as “TikTok pasta” amassing 1,778 searches per month in the US:

Let’s talk about psychology

Persuasion resistance is a natural psychological defense when we feel like someone is trying to manipulate us into buying, doing, or thinking something. We perceive persuasion as a threat and we try to move away from it or oppose it.

Over a decade ago, the online advertising industry started to worry about a decrease in the CTR of their display ads. Pop-ups got dismissed, banners went ignored. Users had caught onto advertisers: we were trying to sell them something.

This triggered a phenomenon known to psychologists as persuasion resistance. Advertisers called this response “banner blindness”. As an industry, we developed four different strategies to counter this resistance to persuasion.

1. First, we started making our ads look like they were part of the content. We called these “native ads”.
2. Then, we started placing the ads in unexpected places, where users were less likely to be bracing themselves to be sold to.
3. We started making ads a little bit more relevant to the context, so that they felt less intrusive.
4. Finally, we moved into social proof, and we started leveraging the power of trust. Thus influencer marketing was born.

TikTok leverages these four strategies to counter resistance to persuasion by design. How do they do it?

• Creators are paid for their content through the Creator Fund, based on how many views or engagement their videos get. They are incentivized to make quality, engaging content that users will enjoy, not just by making deals with brands.
• They regularly showcase their beauty routines, fashion, or home products, with or without a brand sponsorship. This makes affiliate or sponsored content look just like regular content.
• Their ads are served in exactly the same format as their regular content, with a small tag letting you know that it’s promoted content.
• All the videos have an identified creator, visible like and view counts, and open comments. Social proof abounds!

But SEO is not paid social or influencer marketing. So why should we care?