TikTok Is Exploring a Partnership With Google to Drive Search Traffic

Hey, remember how last yr, reports were circulating that TikTok had turn out to be the search engine of selection for a lot of younger users, and that it could, at some stage, take a much larger chunk of Google’s market share, although discovery isn’t its most important focus?

Well, Google might now have found a option to counter that. Kind of.

In response to a brand new report from Business Insider, TikTok and Google are currently exploring a brand new partnership, which might integrate Google search prompts, and potentially, at some stage, even results, into TikTok’s own search stream.

As you possibly can see in this instance, posted by app researcher Radu Oncescu, some TikTok users at the moment are seeing a brand new prompt appear inside their search leads to the app, which incorporates a CTA to expand their search on Google.

Which looks like a form of custom ad unit, though apparently it isn’t, which TikTok clarified in communications with BI.

As per Business Insider:

“A TikTok spokesperson has confirmed that the corporate is experimenting with third-party integrations throughout the TikTok app, including a test with Google. The feature, which is being trialed globally across several different markets, just isn’t an ad unit, the spokesperson said. A Google spokesperson said the corporate had nothing further to share and declined to comment on whether there was a financial agreement between the 2 corporations as a part of the partnership.”

So, it’s a custom integration, made for Google on this instance, which goals to offer more context, and facilitate more discovery via the TikTok app.

Which, for each apps, probably makes some sense.

Last July, in a presentation to Fortune’s “Brainstorm Tech” conference, Google’s Senior Vice President Prabhakar Raghavan said that Google does indeed see TikTok’s emergence as a discovery tool as a possible business risk.

 “In our studies, something like almost 40% of young people, once they’re searching for a spot for lunch, they don’t go to Google Maps or Search. They go to TikTok or Instagram.”

Based on this, it might be a logical, and useful move for Google to integrate its tools into TikTok’s discovery surface, which can help to maintain Google in mind as an expansion offering, and maintain relevance with this audience.

And for TikTok, it also provides more direct connection to broader discovery options, while there may be additional advantages by way of data sharing between the 2 corporations that might help to enhance their discovery tools.

Though the specifics of any such deal might be quite sensitive.

As Business Insider also notes, Google’s currently under investigation over its dominance of web search, which it’s been capable of maximize via distribution deals Apple, Samsung, and others.

You’ll assume, then, that the Department of Justice, which is examining these arrangements, might take a dim view of comparable on TikTok, though again, Google hasn’t said that there’s any financial deal in place.

And perhaps there isn’t. Perhaps the profit for TikTok, versus charging Google for this feature, is definitely via improved discovery, with Google indexing more of its content, and showing more TikTok leads to search. That would even be stepping on the toes of YouTube Shorts, Google’s own short-form video offering, but perhaps, given TikTok’s emergence as a discovery threat, it’s a “better of each worlds” option for the Big G.

That is all speculation, in fact, as Google’s not saying what the deal is. However it does appear to be Google’s searching for one other option to maintain its hold on search, and to potentially negate the expansion of a competitor, or at least, work in tandem with the rise of TikTok as a discovery platform, with a purpose to keep its tools front of mind.

What TikTok gains is less clear, but presumably, it’s helping to drive more traffic to the app.

Either way, it’s an interesting partnership, and an interesting consideration for digital marketers, with regard to the emergence of TikTok as a search complement.