Gautam Mehra isn’t on any social media platform. “ Google Discover is my equivalent of Instagram ’s Explore tab,” he says. Google Discover is a personalised content feed that suggests articles and news based on a user’s interests and search history.
Lately, his Google Discover feed is showing headlines such as: “Google’s dominance of the global search advertising market is being challenged: WARC”; “ TikTok comes for Google as it quietly rolls out image search capabilities in TikTok Shop”; and “Gen Z ditches Google, turns to Reddit for product searches”. Mehra, cofounder of ProfitWheel, an ad analytics platform, isn’t surprised. Until a year ago, Google was the go-to place for 100% of his searches.
“Now, it’s about 40%,” he says. For the rest, he goes to platforms like Amazon for product searches, Reddit for unique problems, food and grocery apps, and ChatGPT. Advt After reigning as the undisputed king of internet search for two decades, Google’s dominance has been diminishing in the past threefour years.
Specialised platforms like Amazon for product search, Spotify/Apple Music for music, Roblox for gaming, Booking.com for travel, and social media apps like TikTok, Instagram and Reddit are gaining ground. According to a March 2023 report by PowerReviews, a ratings enhancement consultancy, 50% of US consumers, mainly millennials, start product searches on Amazon rather than Google.
Also, 5% of Gen Z users in US are likely to begin their shoppin.
