---
title: "Which came first, Instagram or TikTok?"
description: "Instagram vs TikTok: Instagram came first, by 6 years — 2010 against 2016. What happened in each case, and why the dates are often given differently."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/instagram-vs-tiktok/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, Instagram or TikTok?

**Which came first, Instagram or TikTok?: Instagram**

2010 — 6 years before TikTok

Instagram came first, by 6 years. The app launched on iOS.

## Side by side

|  | Instagram | TikTok |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 2010 | 2016 |
| Date | 2010-10-06 | — |
| Category | technology | technology |
| What happened | The app launched on iOS. | ByteDance launched Douyin in China; TikTok followed abroad in 2017. |

## Instagram

Instagram launched in October 2010 as an iPhone-only app and took 25,000 users on its first day. Facebook bought it in April 2012 for about $1 billion when it had thirteen employees and no revenue. It is four years younger than Twitter and six years older than TikTok.

## TikTok

The app launched in China as Douyin in September 2016 and internationally as TikTok in 2017. What made it global was the 2018 acquisition and merger of Musical.ly, a lip-sync app that had launched in 2014 and already had a large Western user base — so part of TikTok is two years older than TikTok. Douyin and TikTok remain separate apps on separate infrastructure.

## Common questions

### Which came first, Instagram or TikTok?

Instagram, by 6 years — 2010 against 2016.

### When did Instagram start?

2010. The app launched on iOS.

### When did TikTok start?

2016. ByteDance launched Douyin in China; TikTok followed abroad in 2017.

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## Sources

- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.wikidata.org/) [CC0 1.0]
- Typical range compiled from manufacturer specifications — At One Place (/about/)