Study: TikTok has three times more influencers than Instagram

TikTok has a significantly larger presence in Singapore, with the video-sharing platform boasting over 156k influencer accounts in comparison to 58k influencer accounts on Instagram. This makes TikTok the go-to platform for brands looking to collaborate with influencers who have a smaller, but highly engaged following. 

On top of that, TikTok dominates the nano-influencer scene (influencers with 1k-10k follower range), with 140k nano-influencer accounts compared to Instagram's 43.7k nano-influencer accounts. Even in the 10-k-50k range, TikTok continues to outperform Instagram, holding 11.8k accounts versus 9.8k on Instagram.

In the 50k+ follower range, both platforms show similar levels of influence, making them equally valuable for high-tier influencer collaborations. This is according to a research study by HypeAuditor where it analysed 215k Singaporean Instagram and TikTok accounts. 

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In addition, the study suggests that TikTok is a suitable platform for brands focusing on nano and micro-influencers in Singapore. This is especially for marketers seeking to launch niche marketing campaigns where TikTok can offer a more extensive pool of creators in the lower follower ranges, which can yield highly targeted and impactful results. 

That said, while TikTok may lead in terms of the number of influencers, Instagram continues to deliver higher engagement rates. This is particularly among influencers with larger followings, according to the study. In the 1k-10k follower range, Instagram influencers have a slight edge with a 1.58% engagement rate, compared to 1.52% on TikTok.

As follower counts increase, Instagram’s advantage becomes more pronounced, said the study. In the 50k-500k follower range, Instagram influencers achieve an engagement rate of 0.42%, compared to TikTok’s 0.34%. Meanwhile, for influencers with more than 500k followers, Instagram leads with an impressive 0.58% engagement rate, while TikTok lags behind at 0.18%.

For brands, this presents an opportunity to achieve a higher ROI when collaborating with Instagram influencers in Singapore. As such, Instagram remains a stronger platform for engagement, particularly among larger influencers who have cultivated deeply connected audiences.

Interestingly, when it comes to video content, Instagram Reels continue to outperform TikTok videos in terms of average views for macro and mega influencers in Singapore. Influencers with 50k-500k followers on Instagram gather an average of 43.7k views on Reels, surpassing TikTok’s 36.1k views. In the 500k+ follower category, Instagram’s dominance becomes even clearer, with 152.7k views on average, compared to 114.5k views on TikTok.

Even in the 10k-50k follower range, Instagram outshines TikTok, with Reels attracting 12.2k views on average, versus 7.1k views on TikTok, according to the study. These demonstrate that Instagram Reels provide better visibility and reach, particularly for influencers with larger audiences, making Instagram a more powerful platform for video content marketing in Singapore. 

Similarly, in a July 2023 study by Emplifi's Q2 social media behaviour and trends report titled “Unleashing the Power of Video: Key Trends Driving Social Media Engagement", it found that Instagram Reels outperformed TikTok videos and all other content types on Instagram, generating 55% more interactions than single-image posts and 29% more interactions than standard video posts.

While Reels shared by brands earned 68.25 median interactions per post in Q2, Carousels (multi-image posts) strongly cemented itself as the second-best performing post type on Instagram with 66.5 median post interactions.

Instagram Reels even succeeded as a short-form video format despite its downward trend in the last five quarters, dropping 30% year-over-year in Q2 2023, compounded with Meta’s recent deprioritisation of Reels which is a call for brands to embrace more than one channel for their video marketing efforts to diversify their social content.

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