TikTok vs Instagram: Which's Trending More? [Infographic]

New social media platforms spring up daily, but not all of them go viral and get downloaded like crazy; not at least like Instagram did in its heyday. There was a point of time when Instagram reigned supreme in the kingdom of most downloaded apps worldwide and no other app could dare challenge that supremacy.

But how the sands shift and tables turn! For today there's a new kid in town threatening Instagram's monarchy; and that kid is called TikTok. After Instagram, TikTok took everyone by storm with its popularity. All of a sudden, everyone began downloading it.

Now people compare these two extremely trendy platforms to figure out which to spend more time on. If you are one of such people, and wish to know which app is more worthwhile in the current context, read on:

First, some basics: TikTok

TikTok is somewhat similar to Dubsmash, but otherwise very different from other video creating apps (definitely Instagram). TikTok, (known as Douyin in China) generally involves making videos over copyrighted songs.

TikTok had announced that it had gained nearly 500 million active users per month in June 2018, spanning 150 countries.

TikTok seems appropriate for all age brackets, and therein lays its appeal; a wide genre of videos can be found on TikTok, involving: dance, comedy, food, sport, vlog, games and challenges. Statistically speaking, however, a majority of TikTok's active users are young adults- including both viewers and content creators. So, basically, Gen Z is TikTok's primary patron. Furthermore 8.2 million of TikTok's users are women and 6.1 million are men.

The duration of a typical TikTok video lasts for about 15 seconds and users can add several in-built effects, stickers and filters to spice up their video quality. TikTok shares only a minor similarity to Instagram-that of the caption addition-but even then is only limited to a 100 characters.

In fact, TikTok influencers use other social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and even Instagram (sadly ironic) to promote their TikTok creations.

TikTok's jaw dropping success

Sensor Tower (an organic user acquisition service that assists app developers generate viewership using app marketplace intelligence and App Store Optimization) stated that TikTok surpassed other social media platforms (such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube) as of September 2018. TikTok's downloading growth reached 42.4 percent by October 30th of the same year.

It is nobody's guess now that which app became the most downloaded one in 2018. With 660 million downloads in 2018 from both Google Play and Apple Store, apps like Facebook, YouTube and Instagram have long been surpassed by TikTok's running success.

What trends on TikTok?

The answer might surprise you, but its actually-hashtags! More than Instagram, hashtags trend on TikTok! Hashtags serve as handy and spunky tools on TikTok to generate greater viewership for a certain type of content. In fact, hashtags are so important that video creators don't upload their videos without including hashtags on TikTok! Trending hashtags help generate visibility for your videos ultimately leading to a gradual increase in followers.

TikTok vs Instagram

While Instagram provides photo and video sharing features itself; but they stand nowhere in comparison to TikTok's features. While on Instagram, you can upload videos more than minute long on IGTV, TikTok doesn't allow such long videos to be uploaded.

While comparing the age bracket of TikTok vs Instagram users' age it became apparent that most of TikTok's active users more or less belong to the Gen Z while most of Instagram's users belong to the generation Y. It was also found out that the majority of users on both TikTok as well as Instagram are females.

Check out the infographic below which has been done by Socialtradia team.