By skyforbes 
Instagram didn’t just copy TikTok — it outsmarted it. Tap culture and India’s creators made Insta the clever thief-catcher.
I recently saw a clip of Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, visiting India and meeting thousands of Indian creators. It made me pause.
Why would the global CEO of a U.S. tech giant fly all the way here, to talk to creators, influencers, and meme page admins?
That’s when it hit me — India isn’t just Instagram’s largest market, it’s possibly its most powerful one.
In a country where TikTok got banned and creators lost their voice overnight, Instagram didn’t just survive — it took over.
And the way it did that wasn’t through originality.
It was through something far more subtle, more addictive: tap culture.
Taps over scrolls.
Reels over feeds.
Feedback over depth.
That’s where the story begins.
Taps vs Scrolls: What changed in UX psychology?
When Instagram started, it was all about the infinite scroll — swiping through a feed of polished posts, one after another. It felt calm…