Influencer Marketing platform SushiVid has published data showing an inverse relationship between follower count and engagement rate among Malaysian creators, based on an analysis of 41,039 active creator profiles in its database as of October 2026.
According to the company’s “State of Influencer Marketing in Malaysia 2026” report, the median nano creator (1,000 to 10,000 followers) on Instagram posts a 3.08% engagement rate, compared with 0.85% for creators with more than a million followers. The same pattern holds on TikTok, where nano creators have a median engagement rate of 8.95%, against 3.90% for mega creators. SushiVid found TikTok engagement running roughly three to five times higher than Instagram at every follower tier, and on Xiaohongshu, where its creator pool is smaller, the median nano creator engages at 3.58% and the median micro creator at 1.77%, a pattern the company describes as similar to Instagram’s.
SushiVid cautions against reading the tier medians as a simple sorting rule. The middle 50% of Instagram nano creators ranges from 0.89% to 7.64% engagement, a spread the company says exceeds the gap between tiers. Engagement comparisons are limited to within each platform, since platforms calculate and surface the metric differently.
Platform Presence
Instagram is recorded on 86% of creator profiles in SushiVid’s database, with TikTok recorded on 47%. SushiVid notes that figure likely understates TikTok’s actual reach, because its team does not always log a creator’s TikTok handle when a campaign is booked through another platform. Xiaohongshu appears on 4% of profiles and YouTube on 3%.
Supply Concentrated at the Small End
Among creators with at least 1,000 followers, 73% of Instagram-based creators have fewer than 50,000 followers. By tier, nano creators make up 40% of SushiVid’s Instagram pool and 31% of its TikTok pool, while creators above 500,000 followers represent roughly 4% on Instagram and 7% on TikTok.
Demographics
Based on profiles where the detail was provided, 66% of creators in the database are women, and 62% are between 25 and 34 years old. Among creators who self-reported ethnicity, 50.4% identify as Malay, 31.4% as Chinese, 3.9% as Indian, and 14.2% as another ethnicity. English is the most common content language at 64%, followed by Malay at 49% and Chinese at 22%; creators can select more than one language. More than half of creators with a listed location, 56.4%, are based in the Klang Valley, with Selangor accounting for 36.5% and Kuala Lumpur for 19.4%.
Niche Scarcity
Food is the most common content category at 39% of categorized creators, followed by home and lifestyle at 37% and beauty and skincare at 33%. Automotive and gaming creators each make up 2% of the pool, and parenting creators 4%. Among creators who answered a question about livestreaming capability, SushiVid found that about 5% said they could host livestreams.
Rates
SushiVid also published average asking rates drawn from creator rate cards logged in its database over the past two years. For a combined Instagram Reel and TikTok post, nano creators (1,000 to 9,999 followers) ask RM434 (~$105) on average, rising to RM1,655 (~$405) for creators between 30,000 and 49,999 followers and RM5,364 (~$1,315) for creators between 150,000 and 299,999 followers. SushiVid notes these are asking rates rather than final negotiated prices, which the company says are often lower, particularly for multi-post or longer-term arrangements.
The report’s engagement and tier benchmarks are based on a subset of 22,579 profiles with follower data recorded on Instagram, TikTok, Xiaohongshu or YouTube; rates of 0% and 100% or above were excluded, as were creators with fewer than 1,000 followers. Demographic figures are self-reported and calculated only from profiles where that detail was supplied. SushiVid says all figures in the report are aggregates and no individual creator data is published.
Image source: “SushiVid, State of Influencer Marketing in Malaysia 2026” The full report is availablehere
Dragomir is a Serbian freelance blog writer and translator. He is passionate about covering insightful stories and exploring topics such as influencer marketing, the creator economy, technology, business, and cyber fraud.
Influencer Marketing platform SushiVid has published data showing an inverse relationship between follower count and engagement rate among Malaysian creators, based on an analysis of 41,039 active creator profiles in its database as of October 2026.
According to the company’s “State of Influencer Marketing in Malaysia 2026” report, the median nano creator (1,000 to 10,000 followers) on Instagram posts a 3.08% engagement rate, compared with 0.85% for creators with more than a million followers. The same pattern holds on TikTok, where nano creators have a median engagement rate of 8.95%, against 3.90% for mega creators. SushiVid found TikTok engagement running roughly three to five times higher than Instagram at every follower tier, and on Xiaohongshu, where its creator pool is smaller, the median nano creator engages at 3.58% and the median micro creator at 1.77%, a pattern the company describes as similar to Instagram’s.
SushiVid cautions against reading the tier medians as a simple sorting rule. The middle 50% of Instagram nano creators ranges from 0.89% to 7.64% engagement, a spread the company says exceeds the gap between tiers. Engagement comparisons are limited to within each platform, since platforms calculate and surface the metric differently.
Platform Presence
Instagram is recorded on 86% of creator profiles in SushiVid’s database, with TikTok recorded on 47%. SushiVid notes that figure likely understates TikTok’s actual reach, because its team does not always log a creator’s TikTok handle when a campaign is booked through another platform. Xiaohongshu appears on 4% of profiles and YouTube on 3%.
Supply Concentrated at the Small End
Among creators with at least 1,000 followers, 73% of Instagram-based creators have fewer than 50,000 followers. By tier, nano creators make up 40% of SushiVid’s Instagram pool and 31% of its TikTok pool, while creators above 500,000 followers represent roughly 4% on Instagram and 7% on TikTok.
Demographics
Based on profiles where the detail was provided, 66% of creators in the database are women, and 62% are between 25 and 34 years old. Among creators who self-reported ethnicity, 50.4% identify as Malay, 31.4% as Chinese, 3.9% as Indian, and 14.2% as another ethnicity. English is the most common content language at 64%, followed by Malay at 49% and Chinese at 22%; creators can select more than one language. More than half of creators with a listed location, 56.4%, are based in the Klang Valley, with Selangor accounting for 36.5% and Kuala Lumpur for 19.4%.
Niche Scarcity
Food is the most common content category at 39% of categorized creators, followed by home and lifestyle at 37% and beauty and skincare at 33%. Automotive and gaming creators each make up 2% of the pool, and parenting creators 4%. Among creators who answered a question about livestreaming capability, SushiVid found that about 5% said they could host livestreams.
Rates
SushiVid also published average asking rates drawn from creator rate cards logged in its database over the past two years. For a combined Instagram Reel and TikTok post, nano creators (1,000 to 9,999 followers) ask RM434 (~$105) on average, rising to RM1,655 (~$405) for creators between 30,000 and 49,999 followers and RM5,364 (~$1,315) for creators between 150,000 and 299,999 followers. SushiVid notes these are asking rates rather than final negotiated prices, which the company says are often lower, particularly for multi-post or longer-term arrangements.
The report’s engagement and tier benchmarks are based on a subset of 22,579 profiles with follower data recorded on Instagram, TikTok, Xiaohongshu or YouTube; rates of 0% and 100% or above were excluded, as were creators with fewer than 1,000 followers. Demographic figures are self-reported and calculated only from profiles where that detail was supplied. SushiVid says all figures in the report are aggregates and no individual creator data is published.
Image source: “SushiVid, State of Influencer Marketing in Malaysia 2026”
The full report is available here
Subscribe to Our Newsletter
Check Out Our Podcast