TikTok IMDb Data Gives Gen Z Another Reason to Ditch Google

• TikTok and IMDb announced a collaboration on Thursday.
• Users can link to movies and TV shows in their videos that direct to an in-app page with data about the title.
• It’s one more way that young people can use TikTok as a search engine.

Gen Z has already started ditching Google and using TikTok as a search engine, and now users will have even more access to information about their favorite movies on the app, courtesy of IMDb.

TikTok and IMDb, a movie database owned by Amazon, announced a collaboration on Thursday that will see TikTok licensing IMDb data to power a new feature on the social platform.

Creators will now be able to link to movies and TV shows in their videos. Those links will direct users to in-app pages for the titles that will include other TikToks that linked to them, as well as data from IMDb like cast members, director, genre, release date, runtime, and user rating.

Here’s how it works:

• Click the “add link” option when getting ready to publish a video.
• Search from the “movies and TV shows” option to find any of the 12 million-plus titles on IMDb.
• Select a title or titles, and “add to video.”
• After publishing, links to the selected titles will be available above the video’s caption.

As The Hollywood Reporter, which first reported the partnership, noted, the new feature might be beneficial for Hollywood studios looking to better market to young audiences. 

Young moviegoers have driven the bulk of the box office in recent years. Studios could easily tap into that audience by using the feature on their own TikTok accounts, directing users to learn more about upcoming movies.

For creators, the feature could help boost discoverability, as any videos that link to a movie or show will appear on that title’s page.

As a New York Times story in September declared, “TikTok is the new search engine” for Gen Zers who use TikTok’s algorithm to search for topics tailored to their interests, rather than actual search engines like Google.

“That tailoring is coupled with a sense that real people on the app are synthesizing and delivering information, rather than faceless websites,” Times tech reporter Kalley Huang wrote.

Google exec Prabhakar Raghavan acknowledged that the phenomenon is impacting the company’s business during Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference in July.

“We keep learning, over and over again, that new internet users don’t have the expectations and the mindset that we have become accustomed to,” Raghavan said.

He said that Google’s own studies had found that 40% of young people turn to TikTok or Meta-owned Instagram rather than Google Maps or Search.

Now, they can turn to TikTok to answer questions about who directed a movie, who starred in a TV show, how long the content is, and more.