Google has announced plans to add image search features to TikTok in its TikTok Shop

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After becoming a leader in the social media landscape, TikTok is interested in challenging Google’s dominance in search. The company confirmed to TechCrunch that it is testing the ability for users to take or upload photos to find similar products in the TikTok Shop.

The feature, which was first spotted by X user Jonah Manzano, is available to all users in the United States and Southeast Asia. Users who have access to the new feature will see it as a camera icon in the search bar in the TikTok Shop.

Let’s say you’re at a restaurant and you love the plate you’ve been served. You can open the TikTok app and take a picture of it to find similar items available to buy on TikTok Shop. Or let’s say you’re shopping online and you like a top that’s really expensive. You can save the image and then upload it to find similar items at a lower price.

While you’ve always been able to search for specific items on TikTok Shop, you no longer have to rely on textual descriptions. The ability to use image search for shopping is something Google has offered for years with its visual search tool Google Lens. Image search is also currently offered by Amazon, another tech giant with which TikTok wants to compete.

Two images of TikTok's new image search capabilities in the TikTok Shop
Image Credit: TechCrunch/Screenshot

TikTok has already made progress in reducing Google’s search dominance, as executives at the tech giant said in 2022 that TikTok and Instagram were eating into its core search product. With this new feature, TikTok is not only trying to get people to use its app when looking for new products, but it’s also hoping people will make purchases through the TikTok Shop.

The company isn’t just trying to take on Google or Amazon with this new feature; it also wants to compete with other companies that provide image search tools for shopping, such as Klarna or even startups like Cherry.

TikTok recently revealed that TikTok Shop now has more than 15 million sellers worldwide, including more than 500,000 in the U.S. It spent more than $400 million on platform security and built a team of more than 7,500 people to help keep TikTok Shop secure.

TikTok is betting big on e-commerce, as it sees TikTok Shop as its next big potential revenue source. The company’s e-commerce efforts are also a way for it to keep users on its app unlike others. By building and expanding the capabilities of TikTok Shop, TikTok hopes people will spend more time and money on its e-commerce product.

The company is expanding its e-commerce efforts despite facing a potential ban in the U.S. In April, President Biden signed a bill that would ban TikTok if its Chinese parent company, Bytedance, fails to sell it within a year.





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