TikTok’s “Scary” Search Bar and Its Responsibility Over Gen Z

In the dynamic landscape of social media platforms, TikTok has transcended its role as a mere entertainment hub to become an unexpected contender in the realm of search engines. 

A recent report by Adobe delves deep into the evolving dynamics, revealing intriguing insights into how Americans are turning to TikTok for their search needs, and how businesses are adapting their strategies to ride this wave of change.

We’ve already seen in the last year how TikTok has started to take the search engine game much more seriously, beating Google as the number one search engine for Gen Z.

Since then we’ve seen further updates to support its search engine evolution, such as the introduction of ‘Featured Snippets’, the Search Ads Toggle, and its most recent “mega” update which saw the enhancement of its insights with search analytics and keyword ranking data.

A new era for TikTok

We’re all now aware that TikTok has emerged as more than just a platform for viral dance challenges and comedic skits. Adobe's comprehensive research, based on surveys of 808 consumers and 251 business owners, sheds light on how users are using TikTok as a search engine.