Advertising spending on social media influencers in India by brands is rising — driven by increasing popularity of content creators and proliferation of new platforms like TikTok and ShareChat — and could as much as double this year, advertisers and marketers said. Some even expect TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, to overtake Facebook-owned Instagram in terms of ad spends on influencers by next year.“Influencer spends could go up by 70-100% this year,” said Prashant Puri, chief executive of digital marketing firm AdLift. “Influencer marketing for us is primarily across two platforms: Instagram and TikTok. About 60-65% is Instagram, and about 30% is TikTok.”Sumedh Chaphekar, CEO of NoFiltr, an influencer incubator that also manages influencers on TikTok and Instagram in India, said the country will become the strongest force in influencer marketing, because of the wide access to 4G and smartphones, rise of regional content and increasing ecommerce spending.“And, even though Instagram is one of the top platforms when it comes to influencer marketing, the growth rate of TikTok is much higher. I believe TikTok ad spends will overtake Instagram in a couple of months itself,” said Chaphekar.Sachin Sharma, director of sales and partnerships at ByteDance India, said many brands, artists and even production houses were realising the impact of launching a song, movie or campaign on TikTok first.“They not only leverage artists or actors to launch the campaign, but also engage with our creators on the app by using marketing tools like the hashtag challenge. TikTok also understands that the Gen Z likes S-I-N-C (Short-form, Influencer-driven, Native and Co-created content) and keeping this in mind, TikTok caters to diverse advertising needs which are critical for brands today,” he added.Sharma said the platform has served as the launchpad for a diverse array of local creators through campaigns like the #1MillionAudition series held earlier this year.Eighty-five-year-old Mary Joseph Mampilly, who won the 1 million audition series on TikTok this year through entries submitted by her grandson, will now feature in two Malayalam movies, he said.Instagram, which has 64 million users as per market research firm Statista, has launched new features like the Creator Account, which is rolling out in India and gives creators a set of tools that makes it easier to control their online presence, understand their growth and manage their messages.“Creators epitomise the spirit of Instagram with their creativity in visual storytelling and amazing social video moments. That’s the reason for the increase in the number of partnerships between creators and brands, as they effectively use Instagram across its surfaces — feed, stories, Live, IGTV to develop a holistic content experience for their communities, engaging them meaningfully,” said Saket Jha Saurabh, head of entertainment partnerships at Facebook India.Armand Poonawala, founder and CEO of social media marketing firm @, said businesses were now competing more than ever to win customer eyeballs and engagement on social media."The demand for reaching an audience has increased and therefore there’s a larger cost associated with it, which is simply why the higher ad spend is needed. Platforms that are gaining popularity through their influencer integration are Roposo, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube,” he added.Hyundai planned a content-creator collaboration to give a candid view of the its new compact SUV, Venue, last month through the eyes of four YouTube accounts: Mostly Sane, Mumbiker Nikhil, Technical Guruji and Geeky Ranjit. The vlogs made by each creator covered the entire journey of these creators to the New York auto show where the SUV was being unveiled, while subtly bringing out the features of the car. Together, these videos have clocked 8 million views.YouTube, which has more than 265 million monthly active users as per American media measurement company comScore, said over 1,200 creators in India have crossed the million-subscriber threshold, and its popular creators, like Karikku in Malayalam, are creating five of 10 uploads in collaboration with brands, and getting about 3.5-10 million views.“Our audience is engaging with diverse content, not just in big cities but in rural India as well,” said Satya Raghavan, director of YouTube partnerships, India. “It’s interesting to note that creators are sharing their voice not just in English and Hindi, but also in Tamil, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati and more. They are sharing comedy, music, dance, food recipes, beauty tips, educational videos and content we couldn’t have imagined a decade ago.”