Reels vs TikTok vs Xiaohongshu by Market: TW, HK, MY, SG

Platform reach by market at a glance

These are advertising-reach figures: the number of people a marketer can target in each platform's own ad tools. They are not monthly active users. DataReportal quotes Meta's own warning that estimated audience size "is not a proxy for monthly or daily active users, or for engagement"^[2]. TikTok's tools only report audiences aged 18 and above, so its row uses a different base from the others^[1]. Malaysia's TikTok figure is higher than the country's adult population, which DataReportal marks with an asterisk as a figure that exceeds its reference base^[3]. Read it as "very broad reach", not as a precise count.

Even with those caveats, the pattern is clear enough to plan on. Of the platforms in the table, YouTube reaches the largest share of the population in every market. Instagram reaches roughly half the population in all four. TikTok ranges from negligible in Hong Kong to near-universal among Malaysian adults. Threads is a meaningful audience only in Taiwan and, to a lesser extent, Hong Kong.

Reach figures are also a quick sanity check on a views target. Instagram's ad reach in Hong Kong was 4.05 million people^[2], so a 500,000-view Reels campaign there works out at roughly one view for every eight people Instagram can reach. In Taiwan, with 12.2 million people reachable on Instagram^[1], the same target is closer to one in twenty-four. Views include replays and repeat viewers, so this is a rough scale check rather than a forecast, but it tells you quickly whether a target is modest or ambitious for the market.

Which short-video platform works best in Taiwan?

Taiwan is a Meta-and-YouTube market with a growing TikTok audience. Instagram reached 12.2 million people in late 2025, 60.4% of adults, while Facebook reached 17.3 million, or 74.9% of the population^[1]. Facebook matters more here than its reputation suggests: its reach extends well beyond Instagram's, and Reels published to Facebook reach older buyers that an Instagram-only plan misses. TikTok's ad tools reported 8.67 million adult users, 43.7% of adults^[1], which makes it a real second channel rather than a niche.

A practical split for a first Taiwan campaign: most creators on Reels, with Facebook cross-posting where a creator's Facebook audience is real; one or two TikTok-native creators to test that audience; and Shorts versions of the strongest videos for categories people research on YouTube before buying.

Threads deserves a line in any Taiwan plan. It reached 6.65 million people, 28.8% of the population, the highest share of the four markets^[1]. It is a text-first network, so treat it as a place for creators to extend a video's conversation rather than a video channel in its own right.

Xiaohongshu is the exception. On 4 December 2025 Taiwan's Ministry of the Interior ordered internet service providers to stop resolving and restrict access to the app for one year, citing 1,706 fraud cases linked to it over roughly two years^[6]. In August 2026 the Interior Minister said the block was very likely to be extended by another year if the company kept ignoring the government's requests^[7]. Do not build a 2027 Taiwan plan around Xiaohongshu. On Clipy, Taiwan has the largest pool of creators with a published portfolio, about 2,300, and Instagram Reels is the channel creators across the platform use most.

Is TikTok available in Hong Kong?

Not in any meaningful sense. TikTok announced in July 2020 that it would stop operating the app in Hong Kong, days after the national security law took effect; ByteDance said at the time that Douyin, its mainland Chinese app, would continue to serve users there^[5]. By late 2025, TikTok's own ad tools reported just 169,000 adult users in Hong Kong, 2.6% of adults^[2]. A Hong Kong brief that asks for TikTok is asking for an audience that is not there.

That leaves Instagram and YouTube as the default short-video pair. Instagram reached 4.05 million people in Hong Kong and YouTube 6.24 million^[2]. Facebook, at 63.6% of the population, still reaches the older half of the market, and Threads reached 21.0%^[2]. Language matters as much as platform: 96.0% of Hong Kong residents aged 5 and over can speak Cantonese, compared with 57.7% who can speak English and 56.5% Putonghua^[11]. Creators who speak naturally in Cantonese, with written-Chinese captions, fit the market better than a Mandarin script translated at the last minute.

YouTube deserves more attention in Hong Kong than it usually gets in short-video plans. Its ad reach, 84.4% of the population, is the widest of the platforms compared here^[2], and Shorts sit inside the same app people use to search for reviews and how-to videos. For categories where people research before buying, such as electronics, beauty and dining, a Shorts version of each Reels video is cheap insurance.

Hong Kong's creator pool is also smaller. Clipy has about 310 Hong Kong creators with a published portfolio, so plan fewer, stronger videos rather than a long tail, and let the best-performing ones run longer.

Malaysia: TikTok and Reels side by side

Malaysia is the one market where TikTok is plainly as important as Instagram. TikTok's tools reported 30.7 million adult users, more than Malaysia's adult population, while Instagram reached 16.1 million people, 58.4% of adults^[3]. YouTube and Facebook each reached around two-thirds of the population^[3]. A Malaysian plan that picks only one of TikTok or Reels leaves a large audience untouched, so budget for both and let each creator lead on the platform where their own audience is strongest.

Language splits the audience before platform does. Of Malaysia's 30.9 million citizens in 2025, 70.5% were Bumiputera, 22.2% Chinese and 6.5% Indian^[9]. A Chinese-language video speaks to a real but minority slice of the market; Bahasa Malaysia and English creators reach the rest. Plan the language mix first, then find creators in each group, and remember that disclosure labels must match the language of each video.

The regulatory backdrop has tightened. Since 1 January 2026, internet messaging and social media services with 8 million or more Malaysian users have been automatically deemed licensed by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, a list that includes TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube^[8]. For brands this mainly means the big platforms now operate under a local licence. Clipy has about 1,070 Malaysian creators with a published portfolio, the second-largest pool on the platform.

Singapore: highest reach, smallest creator pool

Singapore has the highest social media adoption of the four markets, with social media user identities equal to 90.6% of the population^[4]. YouTube reached 5.33 million people, 90.6% of the population, and TikTok's tools reported 3.80 million adult users, 75.4% of adults^[4]. Instagram reached 3.35 million, 57.0% of the population^[4]. Both TikTok and Reels are mass channels here, and YouTube Shorts has an unusually large base to draw on. Threads, at 7.9%, is small^[4].

English is the default. In the 2020 census, English was the language most frequently spoken at home for 48.3% of residents aged 5 and over, up from 32.3% in 2010^[10]. English-language creators reach the widest audience, with Mandarin as a strong second language for specific categories. Be honest about scale, too: Clipy has about 80 Singapore creators with a published portfolio, far fewer than in Taiwan or Malaysia. For a Singapore-only campaign that needs dozens of creators at once, expect to supplement with other sourcing.

Where does Xiaohongshu fit in 2026?

Outside Taiwan, Xiaohongshu is a platform worth testing but hard to size. None of DataReportal's 2026 reports for Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia or Singapore includes Xiaohongshu reach figures, and we could not find ad-reach data for these markets published by the company itself. That makes it difficult to plan on reach and easy to overspend on hype.

The practical role for Xiaohongshu in 2026 is a test channel for Chinese-speaking audiences in Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong, especially in categories where people search before they buy, such as beauty, travel and food. Clipy creators do post to Xiaohongshu alongside Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Threads and X, so a brief can include it for creators whose audience is there. Measure it separately, because its view counts are not documented in a form you can line up against the definitions below.

Why is a Reels view not a Shorts view?

Reach tells you who you can get in front of. Views tell you what happened, and each platform counts them differently, so a platform can look cheaper simply because it counts more generously.

This is why headline platform statistics need care. YouTube's chief executive wrote in January 2026 that Shorts now averages 200 billion daily views^[12]. That figure is real, but it is counted under the start-or-replay rule YouTube adopted in March 2025, so it is not comparable with older Shorts figures or with TikTok's replay-excluding ad metrics. When you compare platforms for a campaign, compare completion rates and effective cost per 1,000 views on each platform's own definition, and read our guide to UGC ROI metrics before moving budget between them.

Is Facebook still worth it for short video?

Facebook is easy to dismiss as a platform for older users, but in every one of the four markets its ad reach is larger than Instagram's. In Taiwan the gap is more than 20 percentage points: 74.9% against 52.6%^[1]. In Malaysia it is 63.7% against 44.6%^[3], in Hong Kong 63.6% against 54.8%^[2], and in Singapore 64.6% against 57.0%^[4].

For short video, that makes Facebook Reels a cheap way to extend a creator video to buyers who never open Instagram. It is not a replacement for Instagram or TikTok with younger audiences, and Meta's reach estimates are not active-user counts, but a plan that ignores Facebook entirely leaves the largest Meta audience in each market untouched. The simplest approach is to ask creators whose Facebook audience is real to publish there too, and to report Facebook views in their own column.

Which platform should you use for each goal?

The table is a starting point, not a rule. Within a market, the right platform for a given creator is the one where that creator's own audience already watches, which is why Clipy shows brands each creator's real past posts rather than a follower count alone. A creator with a strong Reels following and a thin TikTok account should lead on Reels, whatever the market average says.

Decide in the brief whether one video may be cross-posted. Clipy creators post to Instagram Reels, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, YouTube, Threads, Xiaohongshu and X, and many audiences overlap. If a creator posts the same video to Reels and Facebook, agree up front which posts count towards the campaign's views, how each platform's figures will be reported, and whether each version needs its own opening and disclosure label. Clear rules here prevent the most common reporting dispute in multi-platform campaigns.

A four-week, two-platform test

Run the test in one market at a time, with the same product and offer on both platforms, so the only real variable is the platform. When the results are in, put the next quarter's budget behind the winner and keep a small share on the runner-up, because platform audiences shift. If you plan to run all four markets, the cross-border guide covers language, disclosure and sample shipping market by market.