Yes, TikTok is becoming the Google of Gen Z: the numbers prove it

It is nothing new that young people are increasingly turning to social networks for their online searches: we have been talking about it for about a year now, and even those at Google are aware of it (and probably worried).

The news, now, is that we finally have reliable and up-to-date data which tell how many of these young people do this, which platforms they turn to and what are the differences with other age groups.

How the research took place (and who are the Boomers)

The credit goes to a survey conducted by Morning Consultationa popular consulting firm, on a sample of 2,200 American adults, divided by age range: Generation Z (the under 20s, to simplify), Millennials (today’s 30-40 year olds), Gen X (those over 50) e Boomers (the over 60s).

Last February, respondents were asked where they look online for news, how they get information, if they use multiple sources and which ones and even if they would pay (and how much) for this news. And it has indeed been confirmed that the focus of the new generations is shifting from traditional sites and that, if they want to survive, “publishers must also distribute content outside their sites”.

TikTok is Google for Gen Z

What emerged is that about 14% of Gen Z membersif you want to find out about a news story, start your search on TikTok, which only 1% of the so-called Boomers do and in general 2% of all other age groups (graph above).

Attention: this does not mean that Google is no longer used, but it’s just that it’s used differently. It remains the (virtual) place where most people start a search for news, but with different importance according to the different age groups.

Besides, there are different approaches also to social platforms: Gen Z prefers TikTok and YouTube, while Millennials are more likely to start from Facebook and Boomers go directly to a news site they trust (that of a newspaper, for example) and start their research from there .

Searches in comments, the TikTok trick

Those of TikTok evidently have understand what is happening and they are trying to encourage this change in people’s habits.

On the ByteDance social network, searches for news events (such as the tragic train accident in Greece) they return videos as the first results which effectively allow you to get an idea of ​​what happened, almost as if you were in front of the schedule of an all-news TV.

Furthermore, for some months now, a function is also active on the Italian app not very publicized but which goes exactly in this direction: when opening the comments section of a video somehow related to current events (or in any case to a highly sought-after topic) in the comments appear keywords with a magnifying glass symbol next to themwhich if clicked allows you to quickly search on TikTok for that specific word.

Even more: often the search string appears directly at the top comments, in a dominant and evident position, so as to push people to click and search for more on that specific topic. Instead of googling it, of course.

@capoema