Though TikTok’s fate in the US continues to teeter, it’s not slowing down in testing and launching new features. And that involves its ongoing conquest of search – including local search – to chip away at Google’s dominance. It’s now a popular place to search for things among Gen-Z (more on that in a bit).
TikTok’s latest move in local search is evident in a feature it’s testing: place reviews. This was spotted by a few TikTok users, taking the form of typical ratings and reviews content. As for the UX, these reviews sit below certain TikTok videos that contain businesses or points of interest (think: Central Park).
That is accomplished through tags. Whenever a local business or place is tagged in a given video, TikTok will include any review content it has for that place. For now, these are all original reviews that flow from TikTok users, which makes them differentiated from the reviews you may find on Google and Yelp.
That review content generally comes from comments that TikTok users have made about places they’ve visited. And that’s precisely where reviews will live. Rather than reengineer its UX, reviews will be nested under a dedicated tab in the comments section of a given TikTok, which sits right below the content.
Testing the Waters
To be clear, this is a trial that some users have spotted, rather than an official product release from TikTok. But it’s notable that TikTok is testing the waters. It certainly sees opportunity in expanding local search functionality and utility, following its organic momentum in becoming a search tool.
That brings us back to the part about TikTok’s growth as a search engine. The key term above is “organic,” as TikTok’s efforts to cultivate local search follow demand signals of its users. They simply began to use the TikTok search bar to find local businesses, so TikTok is following that momentum.
Regardless of how TikTok search activity first germinated, it’s now a thing. Bernstein Research reports that 45 percent of Gen Z is more likely to use social media for search. And eMarketer reports that 51 percent of Gen Z favors TikTok over Google Search. That’s for all searches, but it includes local.
And all of the above has been validated by the Localogyverse. Among others, Yext’s Brooke Henderson reports from anecdotal (Gen-Z kids) and empirical (Yext first-party data) evidence that this trend is real. And it’s one of many things causing search to fragment, which mostly comes at the expense of Google.
Speak the Language
Back to reviews (and speaking of Yext), it’s unclear where TikTok will go next, including how it sources reviews. As noted, it has an edge in reviews differentiation, given that they’re all coming from TikTok. That’s important as there’s a certain native “language” to TikTok which will shine through in reviews.
However, that plan is antithetical to scale… and reviews are a numbers game. In other words, based on the sheer volume of local businesses, ample review volume is needed for a worthwhile user experience in niche categories… or in niche businesses. Some businesses on TikTok likely have zero reviews.
This is the chicken & egg dilemma that review giants like Yelp had to deal with in early days. Google meanwhile reached scale through a combination of aggregation and original reviews that it derives within Google Business Profiles. And based on its operational scale, it’s been able to well-exceed critical mass.
For TikTok, one way to accelerate past the chicken & egg dilemma is via partnerships or aggregation. But that may water down the TikTok-native experience. So we’ll be watching to see where TikTok takes it next. For now, this is a notable development – even if just a test – and another shot across Google’s bow.
Stay tuned for more TikTok analysis, including original data from Tiger Pistol that we’ll break down soon in Localogy Insider…
Header image credit: Alexander Shatov on Unsplash
