Instagram's Battle with TikTok Expands and TikTok's Hurting

CapCut has become synonymous with short-form video editing thanks to its deep ties to TikTok, its owner. For years, it's been the go-to choice for TikTok creators looking to cut, polish, and publish their clips, quickly eclipsing incumbents.

Rival Meta didn't like that, obviously, and has been working quietly to shift that balance.

Back in April, Meta launched Edits, a new app designed specifically for Instagram creators. And in just a few months, Edits has transformed from being too late to a formidable rival in the U.S.

Edits opened with a decent chunk of downloads, nearly 4M in the US in April, according to our estimates. A drop in the bucket when compared to (17%, if you prefer real numbers), but that was just the beginning. Appfigures Intelligence shows that by September, Edits' downloads doubled to a little over 8M, showing that Instagram's built-in creator ecosystem was ready for a tool of its own.

But that's not all Meta managed to do with Edits.

While CapCut remains dominant, looking at the trend, Edits has clearly managed to reduce CapCut's monthly downloads since its release. Our estimates show that CapCut's monthly downloads dropped by a whopping 22% in the US.

There's a small but big caveat, though: Edits is completely free. Just like how CapCut started. That makes Edits very accessible, but if it follows CapCut's strategy, that'll change in the future. CapCut, by contrast, has a large base of paying users who are seemingly sticking around and generating more than $60M of net revenue (after store fees) in September and growing fast.

Still, the battle is just beginning.

Meta has shown it can move quickly when it wants to, and Edits is already positioned as the natural choice for Instagram creators. The question now is whether CapCut's loyal paying base stays put or begins to drift.