Just when you thought TikTok was the world’s most entertaining app comes a series of new reports that paint a whole new picture about how fans are turning to the app for other purposes too.
Think along the lines of finding reliable sources for news and also conducting searches on the app as well. Clearly, these are a whole new set of trends when we talk about users of today who once logged in solely to entertain themselves.
TikTok’s influence entering these various themes is not only shocking for some but it’s being welcomed by others who feel the young generation is more curious than ever when it comes to diversity being offered in their footsteps.
New reports have proved with a statistical analysis how younger audiences tune in to carry out searches and to keep themselves aware of the news headlining the world today. But there is a slight cause of alarm for some who feel the app has connections to China’s Government.
During this year’s Fortune Brainstorm Tech program, we saw the SVP of Google come forward and make a clear point about younger audiences resorting to TikTok and Instagram for search-related queries, instead of the usual Google apps that are designed for discovery purposes.
Raghavan highlighted how the figures reached a staggering 40% and entailed so many young individuals who would even go as far as searching trending places for lunch on Instagram instead of heading on over to Google maps to make their final decision.
But to be honest, we’re not too surprised by that finding as the majority of people tuning into social media apps are the younger lot. However, we won’t lie. Seeing the name TikTok pop up for search queries is definitely something new. After all, very few people, if any, associate such behavior with an app like that.
And if that wasn’t a little shocking, let’s take a look at Instagram which has gone as far as putting out a range of listing tools for brands within its map feature to get better aligned with such a trend.
Recently, we saw a communications organization from the UK mention in its new report how TikTok has turned into the country’s fastest-growing entity for news for adults. Additionally, there was chat about how young teens adore Instagram as their go-to source for news, closely followed up by apps such as TikTok and then YouTube trailing behind.
So, as you can see, it’s not just the world of TikTok that’s hustling and bustling in terms of entertainment. It’s doing wonders with the world of news. Taking into consideration the fact that so many young audiences spend so much time scrolling through the app’s For You Feed, this was bound to occur. But the news does come with a number of warning bells.
The huge impact that the app is having on audiences worldwide isn’t going unnoticed as regulatory bodies are keeping a close eye on the platform.
This past month, one FCC Commissioner was seen calling out tech giants Apple and Google to ban the app from being available across the app stores. This was linked to a series of reports on how TikTok shares users’ data from the US to those databases located in China. Hence, it was being called out as a surveillance tool.
This left TikTok with no choice but to alter its privacy policies and to convince fellow stakeholders that it was not doing any of the aforementioned that was causing great concern in the US. After all, the app was already tainted by former US President Donald Trump for behaving like a spy.
There were other accusations about how the app tends to grab a hold of too much user data, resulting in a closer watch by countries and their respective regulatory bodies.
This is compounded by the fact that we’ve heard more reports about China advancing forward with its unique international agenda and that would definitely mouth great worry about apps hailing from the country.
Just the thought of more and more users staying in touch with TikTok for news reasons might strike as a source of concern from a political point of view and that means more assessments being seen. So as you can see, TikTok has many of its own problems.
Read next: 70% of Gen Z Are Unhappy With Their Social Media Purchase Journey
Think along the lines of finding reliable sources for news and also conducting searches on the app as well. Clearly, these are a whole new set of trends when we talk about users of today who once logged in solely to entertain themselves.
TikTok’s influence entering these various themes is not only shocking for some but it’s being welcomed by others who feel the young generation is more curious than ever when it comes to diversity being offered in their footsteps.
New reports have proved with a statistical analysis how younger audiences tune in to carry out searches and to keep themselves aware of the news headlining the world today. But there is a slight cause of alarm for some who feel the app has connections to China’s Government.
During this year’s Fortune Brainstorm Tech program, we saw the SVP of Google come forward and make a clear point about younger audiences resorting to TikTok and Instagram for search-related queries, instead of the usual Google apps that are designed for discovery purposes.
Raghavan highlighted how the figures reached a staggering 40% and entailed so many young individuals who would even go as far as searching trending places for lunch on Instagram instead of heading on over to Google maps to make their final decision.
But to be honest, we’re not too surprised by that finding as the majority of people tuning into social media apps are the younger lot. However, we won’t lie. Seeing the name TikTok pop up for search queries is definitely something new. After all, very few people, if any, associate such behavior with an app like that.
And if that wasn’t a little shocking, let’s take a look at Instagram which has gone as far as putting out a range of listing tools for brands within its map feature to get better aligned with such a trend.
Recently, we saw a communications organization from the UK mention in its new report how TikTok has turned into the country’s fastest-growing entity for news for adults. Additionally, there was chat about how young teens adore Instagram as their go-to source for news, closely followed up by apps such as TikTok and then YouTube trailing behind.
So, as you can see, it’s not just the world of TikTok that’s hustling and bustling in terms of entertainment. It’s doing wonders with the world of news. Taking into consideration the fact that so many young audiences spend so much time scrolling through the app’s For You Feed, this was bound to occur. But the news does come with a number of warning bells.
The huge impact that the app is having on audiences worldwide isn’t going unnoticed as regulatory bodies are keeping a close eye on the platform.
This past month, one FCC Commissioner was seen calling out tech giants Apple and Google to ban the app from being available across the app stores. This was linked to a series of reports on how TikTok shares users’ data from the US to those databases located in China. Hence, it was being called out as a surveillance tool.
This left TikTok with no choice but to alter its privacy policies and to convince fellow stakeholders that it was not doing any of the aforementioned that was causing great concern in the US. After all, the app was already tainted by former US President Donald Trump for behaving like a spy.
There were other accusations about how the app tends to grab a hold of too much user data, resulting in a closer watch by countries and their respective regulatory bodies.
This is compounded by the fact that we’ve heard more reports about China advancing forward with its unique international agenda and that would definitely mouth great worry about apps hailing from the country.
Just the thought of more and more users staying in touch with TikTok for news reasons might strike as a source of concern from a political point of view and that means more assessments being seen. So as you can see, TikTok has many of its own problems.
Read next: 70% of Gen Z Are Unhappy With Their Social Media Purchase Journey
