For years, Google was the centre of the universe. Marketers obsessed over rankings, domain authority, backlinks, and long-form blogs. Entire agencies were built around the promise of page-one visibility. SEO was the holy grail, and every brand bowed before it.

But something shifted. People quietly stopped reading long tutorials and blog articles. They stopped trusting corporate websites. They grew tired of clickbait and were exhausted by information overload. And just like that, search, the most essential part of the digital experience, moved to a new home.

TikTok.

That shift was not loud. It wasn’t announced with fireworks. It simply happened because consumers made a choice: they preferred real people over cold paragraphs. They preferred visuals over text. They preferred lived experience over polished marketing language. TikTok didn’t become a search engine by accident. It became one because it offered something Google never could: human clarity.

When someone wants to know where to eat in Cape Town, they don’t want a listicle. They want to see the vibe, the lighting, the aesthetic, the portions, the atmosphere. They want to see the food on a plate, not in a description. When someone wants skincare advice, they don’t want a dermatology article packed with jargon. They want a girl in her bedroom showing exactly what works on skin that looks like theirs. When someone wants to learn how to do braids, install a wig, or shoot better content, they don’t want to decode instructions. They want to watch someone do it.

The question is no longer “What is the information?”
It’s “Can I see it? Can I feel it? Can I trust it?”

That is where TikTok wins. It is designed around human behaviour, not search algorithms. It delivers answers through experience, not explanations. It isn’t just faster, it’s more emotionally accurate. Google may give you data, but TikTok gives you context. Google may show you options, but TikTok shows you what those options actually look like in real life.

This is the beginning of VEO Video Experience Optimisation, the evolution of how content is discovered. Search is no longer based on keywords; it’s based on relevance, resonance, and retention. TikTok’s algorithm doesn’t reward expertise the way Google does. It rewards authenticity. It rewards clarity. It rewards creators who know how to speak to real human questions in a way that feels trustworthy and digestible.

This shift isn’t just technological. It’s deeply cultural. Gen Z and Millennials don’t want to “figure it out.” They want someone who looks like them, lives like them, and sounds like them to show them the answer visually. South Africans, especially, rely on trust signals that Google simply cannot provide, tone of voice, humour, vibe, cultural nuance, and relatability. TikTok operates in the language of the people. Google operates in the language of information.

And brands are already falling behind because they still believe ranking on Google will save them. Meanwhile, consumers are searching on TikTok for everything from makeup to restaurants to financial advice to career insights. Discovery is now a video-first process. The first impression is not a website; it is a face, a voice, a story, an experience.

For brands, the response must be immediate and unapologetic: they need to stop thinking like corporations and start showing up like creators. TikTok rewards realness. It rewards imperfection. It rewards the behind-the-scenes, the honest moment, the “let me show you how this actually works.” Brands that hide behind polished ads and stiff messaging simply vanish from the modern search journey. Visibility belongs to the ones who step into the camera frame.

This is not the end of SEO. It’s the end of SEO as we knew it. The new game is VEO, creating video content that answers real questions in a way that feels human, instant, practical, and culturally aware. The brands that embrace this will dominate the new discovery landscape. The brands that resist will disappear into algorithmic irrelevance.

TikTok isn’t replacing Google. It is redefining what “search” means. Search is no longer a query. It’s an experience. And experience, not information, is the new currency of influence.

The future of search is social.
The future of visibility is video.
The future of brand discovery is human-first, creator-led, and emotionally intuitive.

TikTok didn’t steal the search engine crown.
People handed it over willingly.