TikTok is one of the most popular social networks. Every day millions of users spend millions of hours on it, but how many hours of consumption do they all add up to? Thanks to an internal Meta document, published by The Wall Street Journal , we know that it is 197.8 million hours . This is the number of hours of video consumed on TikTok per day. This is a figure much higher than that of its competitors, mainly Instagram.
The revelation of this information comes after the controversy of the reels . In July 2022, Instagram was forced to stop planned changes to the platform. The wave of protests, led by celebrities such as Kim Kardashian or Kylie Jenner, managed to pause the changes. These sought to reinforce reels, compared to traditional publications, to dethrone TikTok as the platform of choice among video consumers.
Since its creation in 2016, TikTok has not stopped growing. In 6 years it has become one of the most downloaded platforms in the world. His vertical videos have made Instagram rethink the design of its app . To counter TikTok, in 2020 Instagram launched Reels, a video with a similar format: vertical and short.
What is seen more, reels or TikTok videos?
Knowing that they share a format, what is seen more, reels or TikTok videos? TikTok beats Instagram by a landslide . TikTok users spend 197.8 million hours a day on the platform, while Instagram users spend 17.6 million hours a day watching reels. This means that the consumption of TikTok exceeds more than 11 times that of reels.
The bad news continues for Instagram as Reel engagement is down 13.6% over the last 4 weeks . Meta has spent $1 billion to pay content creators through the end of 2022. Reel creators have already received $120 million so far, according to the report.
Why success does not accompany the reels? One of the main causes is the lack of original content on Reels . Much of the content on the reels is TikTok reuploads . According to the report, almost a third of the reels are created from another social network or editing platform, which usually contain watermarks that reveal their origin. This is the number of hours of video that is consumed on TikTok per day, in the coming years we will see if Instagram reaches it or gives up its idea of competing.