New Delhi: Meta’s Reels has emerged as India’s most popular short-form video platform five years after its launch in the country, with 92 per cent of users preferring it over rival formats, according to a report released on Thursday.

The study, commissioned by Meta and conducted across 33 cities with over 3,500 respondents, found that 95 per cent of users watch Reels daily on Instagram. This puts it at least 12 percentage points ahead of competing platforms such as YouTube.

Meta revealed that Instagram Reels generates 33 per cent higher user engagement compared to other platforms included in the survey. The report noted that Reels continues to be the driving force behind major online trends, including dance challenges, memes, point-of-view videos, ‘get ready with me’ clips, beauty transformations, and more.

“Reels drive cultural conversations, leading consumption across genres, with users watching more content on fashion/trends and styles (up 40 per cent compared to other platforms), beauty and makeup (up 20 per cent compared to other platforms), and music/movies (up 16 per cent compared to other platforms),” the report said.

“India is leading the world in video adoption, and Reels is at the center of this shift. Meta will continue to innovate with AI, support creators, and help businesses unlock the power of short-form video,” said Arun Srinivas, Managing Director and Head, Meta (India).

The report also highlighted Meta’s increasing influence in commerce. Around 80 per cent of surveyed Indians said they discover new brands on Meta platforms.

“Reels ads also deliver two times stronger top-of-mind recall and four times stronger message association compared to long-form video ads, while being 1.5x more effective in driving brand metrics as compared to long-form skippable video ads,” the report stated.

“To unlock the full potential of Reels, marketers need to focus on capturing, deepening, and scaling attention by winning attention through social-first creatives designed specifically for the Reels format,” the company noted.

IANS