If short-form video is the future of social media, TikTok is months, if not years, ahead of the competition.
Last year, U.S. TikTok users spent most of their time on the app (55%) watching content in a quick, snappy format, according to the business intelligence company’s annual report Sensor Tower. Mobile Status report for 2025. The rest of the time was shared between TikTok’s profile feed, chat function, live functionality, search results and other areas of the app.
Instagram comes in a distant second, with users spending 37% of their time on the platform on its Reels feature. YouTube Shorts, meanwhile, captured 26% of internet users’ time.
“TikTok is the undisputed leader among short-form video apps, and its success has inspired other social leaders to add their own short-form video features,” reads one line in the Sensor Tower report.
TikTok’s dominance in this area undoubtedly helped it top Sensor Tower’s list of most downloaded social apps in the US last year.
As TikTok’s future remains uncertain following President Donald Trump’s decision attempt to delay banning the app in the United Statesrival platforms have been busy trying to lure TikTok’s 170 million users with increases in ad spending and new features.
Last week, for example, Snapchat launched an advertising campaign with messages that encourage viewers to “find their favorites on Snapchat.”
During the second half of 2024, Snapchat invested nearly $630,000 in national linear TV advertising, according to figures from iSpot.tv, a TV ad measurement and analytics company. On the other hand, during the second half of 2023, Snapchat did not spend anything on this media.
In recent days, both X And Blue sky introduces dedicated streams for vertical video. Substack revealed a live video option for publishers.
Meta has also tried to strengthen its presence in the short-form video market. Additional figures from Sensor Tower show that US Facebook users increased their share of time spent on Facebook Reels by 17 percentage points when comparing December 2024 to January 2024.
In the week leading up to TikTok’s initial ban on January 19, Meta increased its U.S. digital ad spending by 30% from the previous week, according to Sensor Tower.
