TikTok has partnered with Wikipedia. The agreement allows the social network to enrich its search engine with excerpts from the encyclopedia. TikTok hopes to compete with the number one search engine, Google.
More and more internet users, especially younger ones, are now using TikTok Search engine. To search for a restaurant, a recipe idea, a travel destination or various tips, teenagers and young adults like to use the social network – to the detriment of Google.
The American company, which still holds over 93% of the search market, is aware of this. This summer, Prabhakar Raghavan, Google’s senior vice president, explained that “nearly 40% of young people don’t go to Google Maps or Search when they’re looking for a place to eat lunch.” They go to TikTok or its rival Instagram instead.
A study by Her Campus Media comes to an even more contrasting observation. The report estimates that 51% of young Generation Z prefer to search on TikTok over Google. Apparently young people are seduced by the format of the results. 69% of respondents actually prefer videos. In addition, almost half of them find the results more tailored to their tastes.
Also Read: TikTok announces Tako, its answer to Snapchat’s ChatGPT
TikTok enriches its search engine with Wikipedia
TikTok has also become aware of the great opportunity it has. To continue to establish yourself as an alternative to Google, the Chinese platform has teamed up with Wikipedia, the essential collaborative encyclopedia. As our colleagues at The Verge discovered, TikTok has started displaying excerpts from Wikipedia on certain search results pages.
When you search for people, places, and events, an excerpt from a related Wikipedia page may appear in the results. Concrete, The excerpt appears between the videos offered to Internet users. By clicking on it, the user goes directly to the encyclopedia.
Contacted by the media, TikTok spokesperson Zachary Kizer states that the functionality was actually activated a few months ago. At the moment it seems that waya reduced proportion Search terms activate the display of texts from Wikipedia.
In this sense, the Chinese platform has partnered with IMDB. The largest cinema database allows TikTok to display clips about films, filmmakers or actors in its results. Here too, the extracts are forwarded to an IMDB file. However, the feature is currently only available in the US and UK.
Note that Google is not the only digital giant in ByteDance’s sights. The Chinese company also wants to outsmart Amazon with its own marketplace. A new section called “Trendy Beat” has actually appeared on some British users’ smartphones. Products that have become popular in TikTok videos are sold here.
Source: The Verge