Instagram is beefing up its search to compete with TikTok

Instagram Adam Mosseri president is looking to improve the application jobs in the application, admitting that this is a field that Instagram can do more to compete. The notes, which were made in a recent episode of “Build Your Trib”, come at a time when younger Gen Z users turn into social applications such as Tiktok to get answers, rather than using traditional search engines.

Instagram in this mix as well, of course, but knows that its location may be stronger.

“We … we started investing more in Instagram because there is a lot of amazing content,” he said. “Fullly frankly, what we call the search for content – instead of searching for an account, in fact searching for a kind of content – it’s not good on Instagram.”

Exec indicated that part of the problem is that the team that works in Instagram Search was small, but Meta “strengthened” this team recently with the aim of offering more improvements to this front over the coming months and years.

Moses said: “It is a long way, but I think it can also be really good for people looking for things.

The way GEN Z and the younger users are looking for the content is something that was in a way for some time.

Google has determined how the problem was affecting its future as a search provider when, in 2022, Google Exec suggested that you address social applications such as Tiktok and Instagram its basic business, including research and maps.

Last fall, Tiktok started competing directly with Google ads by allowing advertisers to target their search results page.

Various market research studies have also confirmed this shift in how young people use the Internet and search on the web, in various degrees. In an American study, for example, Instagram has released Google and other competitors as the preferred Gen Z. search engine.

But this is still a close race and does not necessarily win Instagram.

The Bernstein Research Study found by Fortune in April 2024 found that 45 % of Gen Zers is likely to use social media to search, and found a study of 2024 Hercampus mentioned in Emarketer that 51 % of Gen Zers prefer Tiktok to go Google, mainly to coordinate the short video.

Mosseri comments indicate that Meta knows the following boundaries as Instagram needs competition as a search engine, not just a social network to keep up with friends.

He also said that the “very small percentage” of medium (non -creatures) is published to feed Instagram on a specific day, adding that this part of Instagram has become a “much more general field.” Stories and DMS (direct messages), at the same time, are where users interact with their friends.

Another field in which Instagram aims to compete with Tiktok to search, which is the recommended searches that appear at the top of the comments section.

In Tiktok, the proposed search is extracted from what people talk about in the comments. This is something that Instagram also wants to improve.

“Sometimes, as it is not the real interesting context … in the video that was uploaded to a person, but in the context surrounding it – it is always in the comments. What we are trying to do is the surface more easily, and then you can go and learn more,” he said.

He pointed out that the release of the Instagram application, which is looking more towards comments to enhance search suggestions is “soon”.