Is TikTok Gen Z’s new Google?

Move over, Google, it looks like you might have some new competition.

USC students have begun to direct questions normally reserved for more traditional search engines to the social media platform TikTok.

“Almost 40% of young people, when they’re looking for a place for lunch, they don’t go to Google Maps or Search, they go on Tik Tok or Instagram,” Google Senior Vice President Prabhakar Raghavan said last July at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference.

Gen Zers make up more than 40% of TikTok’s users. With this large percentage of the user base, they’re reinventing the app’s capabilities.

“I use TikTok as a means for searching for things I don’t know,” freshman health promotion major Andrew Bui said. “For example, for Halloween, I used it as a way to look for ideas for a costume.”

Since 2018, TikTok has become one of the world’s leading social media platforms. The short-form content app averages more than one billion monthly viewers, more than both Snapchat and Twitter. The app’s boom in popularity and innovative style of content has even inspired Instagram, Facebook and YouTube to adapt their own feeds to mirror TikTok.

The popularity of the app can be largely attributed to Gen Z, which includes those born between 1997 and 2012. USC students said they will go to the app for a good spot to eat or even what to wear for a job interview.

“I feel like it gives me first-hand reviews, versus Yelp, which has a lot of biased reviews that are like, ‘Oh the waitstaff is terrible. I am going to give it one star,’” senior sociology major Liam Escobar said. “Where TikTok is more, ‘Here’s a list of places that are good for you.’”

Unlike Google or Yahoo, a TikTok video enables the creator to speak directly to its users. For many students, it can feel more genuine than just reading the top result from a Google search.

“I feel like I am getting a more personal experience,” freshman human biology major Jared Smith said. “I can see people’s true reactions to things.”

When USC students scroll on TikTok, they’re not consuming content written or produced by someone 20 or 30 years older than them. When they’re on the app, students can feel a strong connection to creators, seeing as their demographic is more represented.

“You can actually see where the information is coming from, rather than Google, where it could be middle-aged white guys telling you about the hottest bars in L.A.,” junior music industry major Austin Coven said.

Coven said being able to relate to the information makes it much more enjoyable.

“I think the people know what they’re talking about more on TikTok because they have no incentive to post,” he said. “On Google, some people’s job is to write academic or scholarly articles about things that don’t need to be academic or scholarly.”