TikTok vs YouTube for E-commerce / DTC Creator Marketing: A Data Comparison

When picking a platform for E-commerce / DTC creator campaigns, the choice is usually made on instinct. Below is a comparison of the actual usable pools on each — not the platforms at large, but what survives filtering.

How to read these numbers: this covers creators indexed and validated inside Koinon Link, not every creator on the platform. Suspected bought-follower accounts are quarantined and excluded from the table above (shown separately). The authenticity score is our own anomaly detection over follower/engagement structure, not a platform-official metric. Figures update as collection continues.

What this actually tells you

TikTok has the larger pool, but larger is not better by itself. TikTok has the higher average authenticity — a low score means more manual work weeding out bought-follower accounts. TikTok is easier to reach directly, which drives outreach throughput: on platforms where few creators publish contact details you fall back to DMs, and reply rates are typically lower.

The real deciding factor is not in this table: where your target customers actually consume content. These numbers tell you whether a platform pool is clean and reachable. Whether the audience fits is a per-creator question, not a per-platform one.