User numbers and time spent on major short-form applications both hit record highs.
Wiseapp-Retail, an application and payment data-based market and competitor analysis solution, said on Feb. 24 that a sample survey of Korean smartphone users on Android and iOS showed monthly active users (MAU) for short-form social networking service platforms Instagram, TikTok and TikTok Lite have risen steadily over the past three years.
As of January, MAU stood at 27.97 million for Instagram, 9.43 million for TikTok and 7.07 million for TikTok Lite. That was the highest level since each application was launched.
TikTok Lite posted the biggest year-on-year increase in users, up 61 percent. TikTok rose 24 percent and Instagram increased 5 percent, it found.
Time spent also hit record highs across all three applications. As of January 2026, time spent on Instagram, TikTok and TikTok Lite was 32.6 billion minutes, 9.2 billion minutes and 6.4 billion minutes, respectively.
TikTok Lite also led growth in time spent. It surged 83 percent from a year earlier, while TikTok rose 19 percent and Instagram increased 18 percent, the survey showed.
Ho-jung Lee
lhj@d-today.co.kr