{
  "schema_version": "1.1",
  "id": "40-percent-gen-z-use-tiktok-instead-of-google",
  "slug": "40-percent-gen-z-use-tiktok-instead-of-google",
  "url": "https://groundedkit.com/claims/40-percent-gen-z-use-tiktok-instead-of-google/",
  "api_url": "https://groundedkit.com/api/claims/40-percent-gen-z-use-tiktok-instead-of-google.json",
  "claim": "40% of Gen Z use TikTok and Instagram instead of Google for search",
  "commonly_cited_as": "\"40% of young people use TikTok as their search engine\" (Google)",
  "verdict": "misquoted",
  "verdict_definition": "Primary source found, but the way it is quoted changes the subject, metric, population or precision.",
  "confidence": "medium",
  "rating": {
    "value": 2,
    "best": 5,
    "worst": 1
  },
  "origin": {
    "publisher": "Google (remark by SVP Prabhakar Raghavan, reported by TechCrunch)",
    "title": "Fortune Brainstorm Tech remarks (July 12, 2022)",
    "year": "2022"
  },
  "quote": "In our studies, something like almost 40% of young people, when they're looking for a place for lunch, they don't go to Google Maps or Search ... They go to TikTok or Instagram.",
  "method": "Unpublished internal Google survey of U.S. users aged 18–24 (per Google's statement to TechCrunch).",
  "drift": [
    "Scope: 'looking for a place for lunch', not all searches",
    "Population: U.S. 18–24, not 'Gen Z' globally",
    "Source: an executive's spoken estimate ('something like almost 40%') about unpublished data"
  ],
  "interest": "Google made the remark amid antitrust scrutiny, where showing competition helps it.",
  "safe_rephrasing": "A Google executive said in 2022 that internal research found almost 40% of U.S. 18–24-year-olds looking for a lunch spot went to TikTok or Instagram rather than Google Maps or Search.",
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "TechCrunch — Google exec suggests Instagram and TikTok are eating into Google's core products (July 12, 2022)",
      "url": "https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/12/google-exec-suggests-instagram-and-tiktok-are-eating-into-googles-core-products-search-and-maps/",
      "primary": true
    }
  ],
  "kind": "stat_check",
  "as_of": "Remark made July 2022; underlying data unpublished",
  "last_checked": "2026-10-16",
  "stale": false,
  "date_reviewed": "2026-10-16",
  "license": "CC BY 4.0",
  "license_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
}