TikTok challenges US technology giants and "cannibalizes" core products

The headache of TikTok's rapid rise is no longer just its competitors in the social media field. Google's internal data shows that nearly 40% of "Gen Z" (referring to those born in the mid-1990s to after 2000) prefer TikTok and Instagram to Google search and map services when searching online.

TikTok has grown rapidly in downloads and users over the past few years, making it the fastest-growing social media app, with rivals such as Instagram and Snapchat copying its video features.

Google is catching up as TikTok has changed the way younger generations use web searches, Prabhakar Raghavan, a senior vice president at Google, said at a conference hosted by Fortune. Raghavan said internal Google data showed that "when looking for a restaurant for lunch, they don't use Google Maps or search services, they use TikTok or Instagram."

Google confirmed the data to Insider, saying that "we face a lot of competition, including general-purpose, specialized search engines, and specialized apps."

Google has revealed plans to make its search engine more attractive to young users, including giving users "the ability to instantly access information on multiple targets" by taking photos and videos.

Insider has previously written about the threat TikTok poses to YouTube. Insider Intelligence even predicts that TikTok's advertising revenue will surpass YouTube's in 2024.

At the beginning of this year, authoritative data showed that TikTok has replaced Google, won the world's most popular domain name, and topped the Internet traffic list in 2021.