TikTok's proving to be a powerful tool for New Zealand businesses. 

A new Infometrics report shows the social media platform helped boost the local economy by an estimated $1.2 billion last year. 

It found more than 670 thousand New Zealanders are visiting restaurants and cafes or making other purchases after discovering them on TikTok. 

Infometrics Principal Economist Brad Olsen told Mike Hosking around 50% of businesses in New Zealand reckon they’re using TikTok in some way, shape, or form. 

Of that number, he says, around 15% don't do anything paid, instead just posting organic videos, which is a low cost but effective way to get in front of a whole bunch of eyes. 

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