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There Is No TikTok in India: Why K-Beauty Must Rebuild Its Strategy Around Instagram Reels

India has been a TikTok-free market since the platform was banned in 2020. In contrast, it is now the world’s largest Instagram market, with a potential advertising reach of approximately 481 million users, according to Meta’s advertising data. Yet not a single K-beauty brand ranks among the top 20 brands. This report uses data to explore how K-beauty brands should localize their Reels content and creator strategies to effectively reach Indian consumers.

Plenty of brands carry their proven Southeast Asia TikTok playbook straight into India. But TikTok marketing simply isn't possible there. No paid media, no TikTok Shop, no official brand account.

India blocked TikTok along with 58 other Chinese apps in June 2020, and made the ban permanent in January 2021. When the website briefly loaded in August 2025 and return rumours started, it turned out to be a carrier misconfiguration — denied by both TikTok and India's IT ministry. That September, the IT minister stated flatly that no proposal to lift the ban had been received.

#2
India's global rank in Instagram
beauty posts (#54 on TikTok)
95.0%
Organic share of posts
(of all India Instagram posts)
0
K-beauty brands in India's top 20 on Instagram

Instagram Reels is the first stage any India K-beauty strategy has to win

The ban leaves its fingerprints all over the data. As of June 2026, India ranks #2 globally in Instagram beauty posts, accounting for 13.7% of worldwide volume. That same month, India's global share on TikTok was 0.05% — rank #54. Not a number a country of 1.4 billion people produces on its own.

Where India actually is · Beauty posts, June 2026 Instagram #2 Global rank 13.7% of global posts 86.4% of them video = Reels TikTok #54 Global rank 0.05% of global posts Blocked since 2020 Beauty posts out of India run 146× higher on Instagram than TikTok
India's position by platform · Instagram & TikTok · 2026.06 · Lower rank number = higher position. Source: Glowcast, powered by WHOTAG AI

On Instagram in India, 86.4% of posts are video. The main stage is Reels, not the image feed. And 95.0% are organic — only 5.0% carry a paid label. Consumers have already moved to Reels; brands have not yet moved their ad budgets there.

Won't run here
The TikTok playbook
Influencer seeding → TikTok Shop integration → Spark Ads amplification. The sequence that works across Southeast Asia stalls at step one in India.
Works in India
The Reels playbook
Reels creator collabs → comment-triggered DM links → hand off to Nykaa, Myntra and other local commerce. Different stage, different conversion path.

Not one K-beauty brand in the top 20

This is where it gets uncomfortable. In India's June 2026 Instagram brand ranking, zero K-beauty brands appear in the top 20. Indian D2C brands and local retailers split the leaderboard between them; among global players, only Maybelline and L'Oréal Paris have secured a position.

Top 10 beauty brands in India · Instagram · 2026.06 · Share is calculated against posts mentioning a brand. Source: Glowcast, powered by WHOTAG AI
BrandTypeShare
Dot And KeyIndia D2C8.6%
Reached MarsIndia indie4.9%
Swiss BeautyIndia D2C4.3%
NykaaIndia retail3.5%
MaybellineGlobal2.8%
WishCareSkincare2.0%
MyntraIndia retail2.0%
MamaearthIndia D2C1.9%
LakmeIndia1.8%
PlumIndia D2C1.8%
Extend the list to the top 20 and the K-beauty count is still zero

The contrast with TikTok is what makes this interesting. On TikTok in India, 7 of the top 30 brands were K-beauty — medicube, APRILSKIN, d'Alba and Beauty of Joseon all placed. But that stage is one Indian consumers don't actually use. K-beauty is defending its ranking in an empty room, and hasn't walked into the room where everyone is.

K-beauty's problem in India isn't arriving late. It's arriving on the wrong stage.

So how do you actually make Reels for India?

Start with format and the options narrow fast. The volume play is tutorials — the #1 beauty format on Instagram in India, and only 0.8% of it is commercial. There's effectively no ad competition in that lane.

Reels content format performance in India · Instagram · 2026.06 · Share is calculated against all posts that month. Source: Glowcast, powered by WHOTAG AI
FormatPost shareViews / postComments / postCommercial share
Tutorial1.13%29K220.8%
GRWM0.86%39K732.6%
Transformation0.51%34K320.8%
Review0.50%17K777.0%
Unboxing0.34%14K6413.0%
Haul0.22%19K2033.0%
Makeup hack0.18%45K252.6%
Swatch0.08%39K1762.3%

For reach efficiency, makeup hacks lead at 45K views per post; for conversation, GRWM does the work. But look closely at comments per post for hauls (203) and swatches (176) — three to four times every other format. Not because the content is funnier, but because people are asking for the link in the comments. That's a conversion path unique to Reels.

Write captions in Hinglish, then add three mechanics

Captions on top-performing Reels are almost always Hinglish — spoken Hindi written in Roman script. Translate it into clean English and the tone evaporates.

"Ye toh unexpected nahi tha 🫢"
Pure conversational Hinglish. Sets up the moment and explains nothing
"Kon kon relate kar pa rahe ho?"
"Who else relates?" — a closing question that asks directly for comments
"Wedding glow is real ✨ … #grwm #newbride #shaadi"
The archetypal beauty Reel. Every product brand gets tagged — and no K-beauty name is on the list

On top of that, three mechanics specific to Instagram:

  • Send the link through comments — one line like "comment 'glow'" is enough. It's why haul and swatch comment density is so high, and on Reels this path outperforms the profile link.
  • Drop plain-text search keywords at the bottom of the caption — Indian creators list related terms in parentheses, separate from hashtags. It's local SEO aimed at Instagram search, and brand accounts can copy it as-is.
  • Target weddings — #shaadi, #indianwedding and #newbride sit on India's single biggest beauty occasion. Bridal makeup, guest looks and pre-event skincare add up to one enormous content season.
Open the top-viewed Reels and you'll find more couple, relatable and comedy accounts than dedicated beauty ones. Build your outreach list from beauty creators alone and you miss half the market — search beyond the category for your real candidate pool.

The short version

  • Take TikTok out of your India strategy. The ban is in its sixth year with no sign of reversal.
  • Instagram Reels is the first stage to win. 86.4% of India's Instagram posts are video and 95.0% are organic.
  • Your competition is Indian D2C, not other K-beauty brands. Dot And Key, Swiss Beauty and Mamaearth hold the top spots.
  • Enter on tutorials, build conversation with GRWM. Tutorials are the #1 format at just 0.8% commercial share.
  • Keep captions in Hinglish and add one comment prompt. The link goes out by DM, not from the profile.
Methodology · Glowcast is a beauty social data engine that profiles captions, hashtags and images from public Instagram and TikTok posts with multimodal AI, automatically classifying country, brand, ingredient and content format. This article aggregates beauty posts from India (IN) accounts by calendar month; the reference month is June 2026 (the last completed month), and accounts with unknown country are excluded. Share denominators are noted on each table, and views and comments per post are averages within each format. Facts about the TikTok ban are based on the June 2020 MeitY order and the IT minister's September 2025 statement.
See India Reels for yourself
From creators outside the beauty category to the same data cut for your own brand.
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FAQ

AIt is not possible. The Indian government banned 59 Chinese apps, including TikTok, in June 2020 and made this a permanent measure in January 2021. Although rumors of a comeback surfaced in August 2025 when the website became temporarily accessible, this was due to an ISP configuration error, which both TikTok and the Indian Ministry of IT denied. In September 2025, the IT Minister explicitly stated that there are no plans to lift the ban. Since running advertisements, using TikTok Shop, and operating official brand accounts are all impossible, your strategy for the Indian market should focus on Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts.
AAs of June 2026, India ranks second globally in Instagram beauty posts, accounting for 13.7% of all posts worldwide, while its global TikTok market share for the same month stood at 0.05%, ranking 54th; notably, 95.0% of posts are organic and 86.4% are video-based, indicating a market heavily centered around Reels.
AAs of June 2026, no K-beauty brands are ranked within the top 20 on Instagram brand rankings in India; instead, the top spots are dominated by Indian D2C brands such as Dot And Key, Reached Mars, Swiss Beauty, Mamaearth, and Plum, along with local retailers like Nykaa and Myntra, while only global brands like Maybelline and L'Oréal Paris have managed to break into the rankings.
ATutorials lead in volume, accounting for 1.13% of all posts in June 2026, and with a commercial share of only 0.8%, advertising competition is minimal. In terms of view efficiency, Makeup Hacks are the highest at 45,000 views per post, while GRWM shows strong engagement with 73 comments per post. Hauls and Swatches see overwhelming engagement with 203 and 176 comments per post, respectively, driven by the unique Instagram behavior of users requesting links in the comments.
AHinglish (a mix of Hindi written in Roman script and English) is the standard. Top-performing Reels mostly use colloquial captions like 'Ye toh unexpected nahi tha' or 'Kon kon relate kar pa rahe ho?'. You should also incorporate three Instagram-specific elements: first, a call-to-action to drive engagement ('comment glow'); second, a plain text list of searchable keywords at the bottom of the caption; and third, credits that tag all brand accounts of the products used. For wedding-related content, using hashtags like #shaadi and #indianwedding is essential in the Indian beauty landscape.
#Indian Beauty Market#Instagram Reels#K-Beauty Exports#Hinglish#TikTok Ban#Content Strategy#Instagram Marketing#Influencer Marketing