TikTok has grown tremendously in popularity over the past few years, becoming one of the most used social media platforms worldwide. This growth has also led to an increase in people searching for content on TikTok. The share of search that TikTok commands illustrates its influence as a discovery and entertainment platform.
What is Share of Search?
Share of search refers to the percentage of total searches that a particular website, app or platform accounts for during a given period. It offers insight into what platforms people are using to find information and content online.
For TikTok, share of search indicates what percentage of total online searches are happening directly on or driven by TikTok. As TikTok has exploded in use, its share of search has grown considerably.
TikTok’s Rising Share of Global Search
In 2020, TikTok accounted for only 2% of global mobile app downloads and 4% of global mobile app user spending, indicating it had plenty of room to grow.
Since then, TikTok has rapidly gained share of search across both mobile and desktop. According to Cloudflare data, TikTok went from 1.5% of global searches in 2019 to 6.8% in 2022. On mobile, TikTok’s share of searches climbed from 2.8% to 11.2% in the same period.
TikTok’s search share is even higher among younger demographics who use the platform more. Data from Konsoleindicates TikTok holds over a fifth of the search market for teens ages 13-17 in the United States.
As the popularity of short form video has risen, TikTok has captured search share in entertainment and culture more than informational search. Music, memes, challenges and other trends commonly start on TikTok and then spread online.
How TikTok Has Grown Search Share
TikTok has utilized several key strategies and advantages to rapidly gain share of search:
- Powerful recommendations – TikTok’s algorithm quickly learns user preferences and fills their feed with engaging content.
- Immersive experience – The full screen, swipe-based interface keeps users scrolling through a stream of videos.
- Leveraging trends – Challenges, dances, memes and more go viral incredibly fast on the platform.
- Young user base – Generation Z users have adopted TikTok as a daily habit and source of culture.
- Influencer collaborations – Partnerships with major influencers expands the reach of trends and popular creators.
TikTok has also made investments in search infrastructure and on-platform search features to boost discoverability and watch time:
- Improved recommendation algorithm – Better individual video recommendations keep users engaged.
- Search optimizations – Investments in search infrastructure and data processing power.
- Search autocomplete – Faster search results and suggested searches as users type queries.
- Search ranking – More accurate search rankings to surface the most relevant videos.
- Search trends – Easy access to trending search terms and hashtags.
- Sounds search – Users can easily search for and find videos featuring certain music clips and sounds.
The Importance of Search for TikTok
A strong share of search is crucial for TikTok for several reasons:
- User growth – More search share brings new users onto the platform regularly as they look for entertaining short form video.
- Engagement – Good search helps users easily find videos they resonate with, keeping them scrolling through content.
- Data – Search queries give TikTok valuable data on rising trends and interests to recommend content.
- Monetization – Strong search and recommendations can help drive revenue from in-app purchases and advertising.
- Competitive edge – Search share creates a barrier to entry and network effects that rivals struggle to compete with.
Since TikTok is mainly focused on entertainment, search is even more critical as users come to the platform with very diverse interests and expectations. Smooth content discovery via search is key to TikTok’s continued growth.
Challenges to Growing Search Share
As dominant as TikTok has become, there remain challenges and limits to its search growth:
- Reliance on entertainment search – Less share in informational and commercial search compared to Google and Amazon.
- Limited keywords – Search is very video and audio driven rather than text queries.
- Young skew – Lower search share with older demographics who use TikTok less frequently.
- Adoption caps – Already extremely high penetration among core Gen Z users in major markets.
- Competitors – Other apps like Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts competing for short-form video.
- Keyword restrictions – Bans on certain keywords and politically-sensitive search terms in some regions.
While search share growth may slow, TikTok has plenty of room to expand revenue especially on the advertising side as its search capabilities improve.
Optimizing for TikTok Search
For brands and creators, focusing on search optimization is key to success on TikTok. Here are some top tips:
- Use relevant hashtags – Include trending challenge and meme hashtags that give a boost in discoverability.
- Capitalize on sounds – Use popular sounds and songs to make it into related search results.
- Target keywords – Research keyword volume and competition for terms your audience uses.
- Optimize captions – Include keywords people may search for in your on-video captions.
- Post consistently – The algorithm recommends content from accounts that post regularly.
- Analyze performance – Check which search terms are driving the most traffic to your videos.
- Promote links – Use link stickers to drive search traffic to your website or other social channels.
Gaining a presence in TikTok search results provides huge opportunities for brands to engage the platform’s audience in an authentic way.
The Future of TikTok Search
TikTok is likely to continue its search growth, especially on mobile where it still lags dedicated search platforms like Google. More investment in recommendation algorithms, search infrastructure, and content moderation will expand its capabilities.
However, other entertainment and social apps present growing competition. YouTube Shorts provides a similar short video experience, while Meta is pushing hard into short-form video across Instagram Reels and Facebook.
TikTok will need to balance maintaining its immersive user experience with enabling text and keyword-driven search. More precise user intents and informational search would make the platform more versatile, but also disrupt its addictive feed.
Overall, TikTok remains in an extremely strong position, and will likely sustain a double-digit share of entertainment and culture focused search. Its influence on broader culture and popularity with younger generations make it a crucial platform for brands and creators looking to engage modern audiences.
