Is TikTok quietly becoming the default search engine for small business customers

The headline number, and why to hold it lightly

New research from Infometrics, commissioned by TikTok, estimates the platform contributes roughly $1.2 billion to New Zealand GDP and supports over 9,700 local jobs, the NZ Herald reported. It is a big, quotable figure, and it deserves the scrutiny that any platform-funded study should get.

Look at how the $1.2b is built. According to the report, $434 million (36%) was spent by Kiwis in businesses that use TikTok, 23% flowed through supply chains, and 41% was attributed to wages paid by staff of TikTok-using businesses. That wage component is the tell. Those wages would exist whether or not a business posts on TikTok. The method counts the total economic activity of businesses that happen to use the platform and hands a chunk of it to the platform.

For scale, international tourism contributed $12.5 billion to the NZ economy in the year to December 2025. TikTok’s claimed contribution is roughly a tenth of that, for one social app. That should raise an eyebrow. Infometrics is a credible firm and this is a competent piece of work, but commissioned research carries structural incentives, and readers should read the number as an upper bound rather than a measured fact.

The figure that is actually useful

Strip out the GDP modelling and one number survives intact. Some 309,000 New Zealand businesses use TikTok each month to promote themselves. That is not a GDP estimate. It is a usage count, and it says something real about how Kiwi SMEs now approach discovery and marketing.

By sector, the report puts manufacturing at 25% of the estimated impact, retail and hospitality at 18%, and construction at 15%. The mix matters less than the direction. Businesses are shifting effort away from paid search and Meta ads toward an algorithm that surfaces content on merit rather than follower count. For a small operator with no marketing budget, that is a genuinely different proposition.

Why hospitality is leaning in

The appeal is easiest to see in food and retail, where margins are thin and every dollar of marketing has to earn out. The Restaurant Association’s 2025 Remuneration Report, drawn from 13,945 employees, found average hourly rates of $27.84 and described some of the toughest trading conditions operators had faced in years. In that climate, a channel that can drive foot traffic without an ad spend is worth trying. That pressure, not the $1.2b headline, is the real engine behind 309,000 monthly business users.

What TikTok is good for, and what it is not

Be clear-eyed about the limits. TikTok is a discovery and brand-awareness tool, not a payment platform. TikTok NZ benchmarks at $0.01 revenue per thousand impressions as of March 2026, the lowest of seven platforms tracked locally, against a median of $4.09 and YouTube’s $9.02. If you are counting on platform payouts, you will be disappointed. The value sits entirely in traffic and reach.

The audience is also skewed. Around three-quarters of NZ TikTok users are under 35. It is the dominant discovery channel for younger consumers and close to irrelevant for businesses selling to older markets. Treat it as one lever in the mix, not the whole strategy.

The risks that have not gone away

Data privacy remains a live issue. NZ Parliament banned TikTok from parliamentary devices in March 2023, joining Canada, Australia, the UK and the EU, and the Maxim Institute has flagged that the app’s data collection extends well beyond basic account details. The regulatory risk that spooked large advertisers in early 2025, when a US ban looked plausible, has since receded, giving businesses more certainty. The privacy questions have not been answered, only overshadowed by the growth story.

The honest read for a business owner is this. Ignore the $1.2b, which flatters the platform. Pay attention to the 309,000, which reflects a genuine shift in how discovery works. TikTok is a low-cost way to reach under-35s and drive foot traffic, worthless as a direct revenue stream, and carrying privacy baggage worth weighing. Whether it belongs in your mix depends on who your customers are, not on a commissioned GDP figure.

Sources

• TikTok boosts NZ economy by $1.2 billion as Kiwi businesses swipe up (2026-07-27)
• New Zealand Tourism Continuing To Boom
• The Restaurant Association’s 2025 Remuneration Report – Executive Summary (2025-07)
• TikTok NZ Royalty Rates through Mar 2026 (2026-03)
• If the US TikTok ban happens – how will New Zealand be affected?
• The TikTok dilemma