If there’s going to be a TikTok ban in the United States, Instagram is hellbent on becoming the go-to platform for displaced users. It has already rolled out TikTok-like features and dangled financial incentives in front of creators. Now, it’s turning its attention to the search industry, where it will apply some of the same ideas that have worked wonders for TikTok.
Instagram Head Adam Mosseri commented on the platform’s potential as a search engine during an appearance on the Build Your Tribe podcast. He admitted that Instagram has a lot of room for growth among users who search for videos to learn about local businesses, global trends, and cultural happenings. To accelerate development in that area, Instagram is expanding the team that works on search products.
“We’re … starting to invest more in search on Instagram because there’s so much amazing content,” Mosseri said. “And quite frankly, what we call content search — as opposed to searching for an account, actually searching for some type of content — it’s not very good on Instagram.”
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The concept Mosseri called “content search” is related to a broader shift in consumer behavior. Traditionally, Google search users employed the engine to locate specific information related to a query. These days, many people — and many members of Gen Z in particular — think about search differently. Through platforms like TikTok, search becomes a form of discovery, in which users are less interested in locating a specific webpage and more interested in a broader view of the content and recommendations that are available across the World Wide Web.
That paradigm shift has allowed TikTok to eat away at Google Search’s market share, though the ByteDance-owned app seems to have recently lost some of its momentum in that sector. Even if discovery-style, content-based search isn’t as hot as it was a few years ago, it still has plenty of potential for Instagram. TikTok has added a new form of monetization through search ads and has turned its user queries into creativity aids.
Mosseri noted that Instagram creators would benefit from an increased investment in search because it would lengthen the shelf life of their content. “It should allow content to resurface so that you don’t get all the value in those first 24 or 48 hours,” he said.
Meet the new TikTok, same as the old TikTok
Mosseri’s comments on Instagram search come amidst an onslaught of updates that have added new features and incentives to the Meta-owned app. The takeaway from all those changes is clear: Instagram wants to be the new TikTok.
To absorb so-called “TikTok refugees” in the event of a U.S. ban, Instagram has dusted off one of its favorite tactics: Copying popular features from other apps. The new Edits app offers a direct answer to CapCut, the app that is oft used to edit TikToks.
In other cases, Instagram has made direct overtures to creators. It has offered cash bonuses as big a $50,000 for TikTokers who port their videos over to Reels, and it has promoted new features by turning them into viewership drivers.
According to The Information, Mosseri recently told his staff that Instagram is willing to assume more “risk” in order to capitalize on a potential TikTok ban. A standalone version of Reels, for example, would divide Instagram’s user base while also making the new app an appealing haven in a post-TikTok world.
For all that to happen, TikTok will need to actually be banned. It just received another reprieve, and it’s looking more likely that the beleaguered app will outlast regulatory threats in the U.S. Even if that happens, Instagram users will surely appreciate the updates Mosseri is advertising — even if those developments don’t accomplish their original purpose.
