TikTok vs Instagram: Who’s Who?

TikTok is often compared to other social networking sites that are popular with the boomers, millennials and zummers, the so-called Generation Z – either Facebook, YouTube or Instagram. TikTok, though, has more zoomers – 23%. What is this mobile app about, and is it worth drawing parallels between the different social networks, what are the similarities between them?

TikTok’s Chinese Roots: The History of Its Founding and Development

What is the first thing to know about TikTok? TikTok is an online platform for creating and publishing short videos with musical accompaniment. Even though it was created long before 2018, it is still the network that people associate with the active younger generation in 2018, although TikTok has accounts of users from various age groups.

The idea for the mobile app came from a Chinese company called ByteDance, which launched a service called Douyin in the country in September 2016. In 2017, in order to enter the Indonesian market, the development team adapted the name for the international market – TikTok. Subsequently, ByteDance’s product portfolio includes a service known as musical.ly.

What’s special about musical.ly? The new ByteDance platform is focused on publishing short videos with music, and the service quickly became popular not only in European countries, but also in the US and Japan. Everything changed for ByteDance when the company decided to merge the services to bring them to the market under a single brand – TikTok, as we know it.

Statistics

According to DataReportal Digital around the world’s January 2021 report, TikTok’s monthly audience grew to 689 million active users. Moreover, TikTok ranked as the seventh most popular social network globally, after Facebook, Youtube, WhatsApp, FB Messenger, Instagram, and Wechat.

App Annie predicts that the audience will grow to 1 million active users in 2021 and surpass the 1,200,000 active user mark.

A Statista study in the US for 2019 shows that TikTok users spend 498 minutes on the platform each month, compared to Instagram’s 200 minutes each month. In terms of popularity, TikTok can only compete with Facebook, where users spend 498 minutes each month.

TikTok is second only to WhatsApp in terms of downloads in the US, with 789 million downloads on iOS and Android devices, according to the latest quarterly report for 2019.

Sensor Tower Store Intelligence shares data on the number of TikTok downloads globally on the App Store and Google Play. The figure has crossed the 2 billion download mark.

According to Apptrace, TikTok is available in 141 countries out of a possible 155.

The features of the online TikTok platform are available in a mobile app, which can be downloaded through the AppStore or GooglePlay. The developers, who managed to introduce the original version of TikTok in 200 days, did not introduce a web version. Indeed, the service’s content is aimed at mobile gadget owners who create, publish short videos and follow the latest trends in creating “off the axis” on their phones.

TikTok is not without reason compared to Instagram, as the services have a similar interface and control panel. On the online platform TikTok, browsing starts from the Home page, where the posts of those users to whom the owner of the mobile app is subscribed appear. In the Interesting section you can find a selection with popular videos of users around the world and recommendations, according to the app owner’s preferences.

Further TikTok functionality concerns specifically the creation of videos, where there is a button to create your own clip, message. Of course, there is the I icon, where you can post your own content, and actively participate in the distribution of the infotainment. You can prepare a video in advance and save it on your device, or create it in your own app.

One of the advantages of using TikTok is the access to a large number of filters and effects, masks, expands the possibilities in creating videos. Where to get music? The music for the video is selected by listening to the music, which is in the library of the mobile service.

TikTok vs Instagram

The Instagram story begins long before TikTok, as the launch date of the mobile app is October 6, 2010. It was in early October that iOS phone owners were able to find the new service on the App Store and download it to their device. In 2021, Instagram evolved into a multifunctional online platform for sharing photos, videos in large numbers, and live streaming. Instagram has become a destination for small and medium-sized businesses, because you can buy interesting and useful things here.

Instagram has 1160000 monthly active users, as confirmed by research from various companies.

Founded in 2010, the mobile app has 1 billion active users in 2020, while 500 million users worldwide view Instagram Stories daily.

70% of Instagram users are aged 35 and over. The social network’s target audience is at the intersection of two generations – millennials and boomers, while TikTok is millennials and zoomers.

Instagram was downloaded 425 million times in 2019, according to Sensor Tower, and in 2020 the social network was the fifth most downloaded social network globally, behind WhatsApp, TikTok, Messenger and Facebook. TikTok had 190 million downloads in the third quarter of 2020, while Instagram accounted for 135 million downloads.

Mixing Formats

Instagram evolved as an online platform for posting photos, mainly Selfies, self-portraits taken with the phone camera by one’s own efforts. Subsequently, IGTV videos started to be posted on the service.

With TikTok, the situation is slightly different, as since its inception the service has focused on posting short videos between 15 and 60 seconds long. Some of these videos with a humorous storyline on Instagram are called vine. Vines, then skits, became popular specifically on Instagram. In TikTok, it all started with lip sync battles, and then Vineyards with interesting humorous plots and challenges came to the network. In addition to Challenges, TikTok is increasingly featuring couple videos, called duets.

Basic Capital

For users registered on the social network Instagram, it is important to have followers who are still actively commenting, liking and interacting with bloggers who create content for the network. For TikTok users, recommendations and the number of views per post are important, while followers are already a secondary factor.

Monetisation

In Instagram and TikTok, monetisation as a way of earning through and for content creation is still developing, although this development is at an active stage. On Instagram, monetisation is being launched through the IGTV video format, which is already being actively promoted on another social network known as YouTube. Live streams are being launched in order to increase the number of donations.

When it comes to TikTok, donators are quite active in live streams. TikTok is a more progressive network in terms of currency, as the online platform has a domestic currency. It is withdrawn via PayPal.

What do bloggers on Instagram and TikTok have in common? The main income for the active users of both social networks who create content comes from advertising contracts. And yet Instagram is increasingly attracting a business segment every year, so it opens up more opportunities to attract customers and their content.

In this context, TikTok lags a little behind, but still the primary goal of users is to gain the most views and get into the top trends. Both masfollowing and masliking come in handy, and you don’t get blocked like in inst.

The advantage of using TikTok is the auto-posting feature of the ToTop Tool. In this way, millennial network users increase their audience reach and the number of new followers. By using this feature, content can be tailored to specific audiences by specifying the geographic location of interest to the blogger.

Entry Threshold

In 2020, gathering a million views or a million followers on the online Instagram platform, even if the account owner is a media personality, was quite a challenge. Not only did it require effort, but also certain funds. Even though the investment may be minimal, and yet it is needed. One has to buy a new phone for filming as an example.

In the case of TikTok, the situation is mirrored, because you can use any gadget on which you have managed to download a mobile app for filming. The theme of the videos can be radically different – from dancing to reciting poems and the like. You don’t even need an original idea to get a million views on TikTok, because you can simply sign up for a popular challenge.

Between TikTok and Instagram the difference in launch years, significantly affects which users come to social media, content creation and posting. Even though Instagram has an eight-year advantage, TikTok has still overtaken the in’s in the number of downloads, active users. Of course, some formats are like rolling over from one network to another, and yet content adapts to the functionality of a particular network, its needs and demands.

The difference between TikTok and Instagram is like an entire generation – they have that in common, and yet some are building the future and catching new Challenges, like TikTok, while others, like Instagram, are improving an already established online platform and sharing their experiences.