Short-form Black Hole... Instagram and TikTok Hit All-time Highs in Korean Users and Usage Time

WiseApp’s three-year data analysis... Instagram surpasses 27.97 million monthly users
TikTok and TikTok Lite also reach 9.43 million and 7.07 million users, respectively... steep upward trajectory
Personalized algorithms and cash-equivalent reward strategies prove effective... shift in digital advertising power

Instagram and TikTok, which have taken over the domestic short-form market, have both achieved their best performance ever.

According to sample survey results on Korean smartphone users released on the 24th by WiseApp·Retail·Goods, an application (app) and payment data analytics company, Instagram’s monthly active users last month surpassed 27.97 million. This is a 5% increase from 26.64 million in the same period last year and marks the highest level since the app was launched.

During the same period, TikTok secured 9.43 million users, up 24% year-on-year. TikTok Lite also surged 61%, attracting 7.07 million users.

The time users spent on the platforms has likewise exploded. Instagram (3.26 billion minutes), TikTok (920 million minutes), and TikTok Lite (640 million minutes) all recorded their longest-ever total time spent. In particular, TikTok Lite’s usage time growth rate was 83%, the steepest increase among all services surveyed.

This is the result of short-form content, which instantly stimulates the brain’s dopamine, combined with personalized recommendation algorithms that keep viewers’ eyes glued to the screen. In particular, TikTok Lite is sucking in new subscribers like a black hole by front-loading an overt reward-based strategy (app-tech) that gives users cash-equivalent points in proportion to the time they spend watching videos.

This demonstrates that the leadership of the digital media market has completely shifted from text and long-form video to short-form. It also signals that the battle among global IT companies to capture user time and monopolize advertising revenue will become even more brutal.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.