Creators see Instagram as a stronger long-term bet than TikTok, survey finds

TikTok may be the most lucrative platform now, but many creators continue to view Instagram and YouTube as stronger bets for building long-term creator-led businesses, according to a new survey from the influencer-marketing platform CreatorIQ.

The State of Creators report, which surveyed 5,095 creators across 100 countries between May and June, found that 38% see Instagram as having the best potential to build long-term businesses, ranking ahead of TikTok at 35% and YouTube at 23%.

That is despite TikTok still being seen as the most lucrative platform today. 48% ranked TikTok as currently more lucrative than Instagram at 31% and YouTube at 13%.

The survey, which explored creator pay, platform strategies, AI, burnout, and audience trust also indicated that creators earning more than $250k annually are more likely to choose Instagram over TikTok for branded content despite 52% of creators overall choosing TikTok as their primary platform for branded content - a finding CreatorIQ says indicates that as creators grow their businesses, they tend to prioritize platforms that offer more consistent opportunities for branded content and long-term growth. 

Tim Sovay, chief partnerships officer at CreatorIQ, told Business Insider that Instagram is "where brands are spending the most amount of dollars in the category, both in general paid media, but also with creators."

"So the nano-micro story starts on TikTok, and then you see people migrate into longer-term and bigger channels and bigger monetization on platforms like Instagram," he added.

The report also found that 67% of creators earn less than $10,000 per year, a finding that echoes a separate report by The Influencer Marketing Factory which found that nearly half of US influencers earn under $10,000 annually. 

Where AI is concerned,  72% of creators said that they have used the tools with 28% indicating that they use it for brainstorming content ideas and 24% for writing or editing captions.

The adoption comes even as platforms continue to tighten their  rules around wholly AI-generated content. Snapchat recently said it will stop recommending wholly AI-generated videos on Spotlight while TikTok has expanded efforts to identify synthetic content and reduce what it calls AI spam.