TikTok and Wikipedia have partnered to “improve” search results on the social network. By searching for some terms on TikTok, the user can view a clickable Wikipedia “card.” Earlier this year, the social network announced an identical partnership with film portal IMDB.
Confirmation of the feature came from TikTok U.S. spokesperson Zachary Kizer in a statement to The Verge. Kizer further explained that the feature was released a few months ago. At the moment, it looks like the cards only appear on TikTok for iOS.
The partnership between the two companies was not disclosed at any time by either party – the cards only kept popping up until someone noticed that there was something new. The snippets appear after scrolling a bit in searches and only a few terms (Taylor Swift, The New York Times and Thanksgiving, for example) show the Wikipedia card.
Partnership should not be related to “reliable source”
The TikTok spokesperson stopped short of saying what the goal of the partnership was. The first idea that comes to everyone’s mind is to take a “more reliable” source (Wikipedia has its flaws, but can give a basis through article references).
After all, TikTok has a “beautiful cycle” of creators who publish false information about some subject and are refuted by other creators who are experts in some area—it’s the never-ending cycle of monetization. However, the reason may be to annoy Google and earn more from its paid results.
TikTok is used by a part of Gen Z for search — but in specific situations. The Chinese social network has been gaining ground with young people in searches for restaurants, books, movies and quick tutorials. A year ago, Prabhakar Raghavan, a senior vice president at Google, revealed that 40 percent of young audiences in the United States search for short-video apps.
By including a card that takes the user to Wikipedia, TikTok cuts out what should be the most traditional step to accessing the site: Google searching. The social network’s tactic is clever. Her audience is already using the platform in an unexpected way, now it’s taking that attention and delivering more results to users.
