China Internet & New Media monthly app usage Report Interpretation

Overview

This monthly China mobile-app tracker uses QuestMobile data for July 2026. Its central finding is that ByteDance is consolidating user attention through Douyin and a broad content portfolio, while rapid short-drama growth and a shift toward AI office agents reshape competition across the internet sector.

Core views

China's mobile audience was broadly stable but spent more time on apps. Monthly active smartphone users rose 1.3% year-on-year to 1.28bn in July 2026, while total monthly time spent increased 8.8%. Within that pool, Douyin became China's most-used app by monthly time spent for the first time: its time spent rose 29% year-on-year, driven by a 19% increase in DAU and an 8% rise in daily time spent per DAU. Weixin's time spent increased 3%, largely from DAU growth, and it remained the largest app by DAUs at 931mn versus Douyin's 714mn. Nomura argues that ByteDance's advantage is portfolio-wide rather than limited to one app. Its five top-20 apps—Douyin, Douyin Lite, Hongguo short drama, Toutiao and Tomato Free Novels—accounted for 35% of mobile time spent in July. Among the top 50 apps, which represented about 93% of China mobile time spent, ByteDance's share rose from 33.6% in July 2025 to 40.9% in July 2026 and was up 0.8 percentage points month-on-month; Tencent's share was 29.1%. Douyin alone held a 19.4% time-spent share, ahead of WeChat's 18.8%, while Douyin Lite ranked third at 6.3%. The report identifies a marked shift from long-form video and reading toward short-form drama. Tomato Free Novels' DAU reached 144mn, up 6% year-on-year but decelerating from 8% in June; Nomura views this as evidence that its user growth may be nearing a ceiling, with competition for attention, including from AI-animated dramas, contributing to the slowdown. Conversely, Hongguo short drama reached 168mn DAU, exceeding the combined DAU of Tencent Video, Youku, Mango TV and iQIYI. Its DAU rose 8% month-on-month and 107% year-on-year, while monthly time spent increased 157%, supported by 107% DAU growth and 24% growth in daily time spent. Hongguo AI-animated drama also gained traction, with DAU up 37% month-on-month to 16mn. Nomura's interpretation is that ByteDance can redirect users and time spent across its app portfolio as growth in an individual app slows. Across other content categories, engagement was uneven. iQIYI's monthly time spent fell 27% year-on-year, with DAU down 20%; Tencent Video, Youku and Mango TV recorded time-spent declines of 31%, 47% and 24%, respectively. In short video, Douyin remained strong, Bilibili's time spent rose 8% on 6% DAU growth and 2% growth in daily time spent, while Kuaishou's time spent fell 15%, mainly because daily time spent per user declined 13%. In music, ByteDance's Soda Music and Tomato Music recorded DAU growth of 70% and 37%, while Tencent Music's QQ Music, Kugou Music and Kuwo Music saw DAUs decline 5%, 15% and 15%. AI-app data point to a cooling in chatbot user growth and a strategic move to workplace agents. Doubao retained the leading AI-chatbot DAU base at 168mn, or 3.6 times year-on-year growth, but was flat month-on-month after a user-growth streak since August 2025. Nomura sees this as cooling chatbot competition. Alibaba consolidated QoderWork, MuleRun and Wukong into QwenWork to convert DingTalk-accessed enterprise workflows into model and cloud consumption; Tencent is marketing WorkBuddy and integrating it with Weixin, WeCom, Tencent Docs and Tencent Meeting; and ByteDance combined Feishu with Doubao's product team, merged Feishu sales with Volcano Engine, and launched DoubaoWork on 25 August. These agents are differentiated from traditional office applications by their claimed ability to complete cross-application tasks autonomously using foundation models. Office-app usage still showed different starting positions: DingTalk had the largest DAU base at about 77mn, down 1% year-on-year; WeCom grew 9% to 72mn; and Feishu grew 51% to 10mn from a smaller base. In e-commerce, Pinduoduo's DAU rose 5% and daily time spent rose 5%, while Taobao's DAU fell 8%, including an 11% decline in hardcore users, and JD's DAU rose 1% as casual-user growth offset a decline in hardcore users. The tracker also records weakness in online travel, Meituan, maps and several mature consumer services, while digital freight and online recruitment delivered selected pockets of growth.

Analysis framework

Nomura tracks July app usage using QuestMobile measures of DAU, monthly active users, monthly time spent and daily time spent per DAU. It compares year-on-year and, where relevant, month-on-month changes across leading apps and app-owner portfolios, then interprets the drivers through user scale, engagement intensity and competitive shifts between content categories and AI workplace products.

Methodology notes

• Industry AnalysisVolume-price decomposition

  Decomposition of monthly time spent into active-user growth and daily time spent per active user.

  The report explains engagement changes by separating audience scale (DAU) from usage intensity (DTSD), such as Douyin's 29% time-spent growth from 19% DAU growth and 8% DTSD growth.

• Competition & strategyEconomic Moat and Competitive Advantage

  Portfolio-level competition for user attention across ByteDance's content apps.

  Nomura assesses ByteDance's position through its combined time-spent share and its ability to move users across news, short video, reading, music and short-drama products.

Asset mapping & comparison

Structured mapping from thesis to named assets (strengths, weaknesses, peers, risks).

• ByteDance / Douyin

  Portfolio leader in China mobile time spent and beneficiary of strong short-video and short-drama engagement.

  Strengths

  Douyin monthly time spent rose 29% year-on-year; ByteDance's top-50 app time-spent share reached 40.9%.

  Weaknesses

  Tomato Free Novels' DAU growth decelerated to 6% year-on-year.

  Comparison

  Douyin's 19.4% time-spent share exceeded WeChat's 18.8%; ByteDance's portfolio share exceeded Tencent's 29.1%.

  Risks

  Competition for user attention and slower growth in mature ByteDance apps.

• Tencent

  Major incumbent across social, video and office applications, with mixed engagement trends.

  Strengths

  Weixin remained the largest app by DAUs at 931mn; WeCom DAU grew 9% to 72mn.

  Weaknesses

  Weixin time spent grew only 3%; Tencent Video monthly time spent declined 31%; QQ Music-related apps saw DAU declines.

  Comparison

  Tencent's top-50 app time-spent share was 29.1%, below ByteDance's 40.9%.

  Risks

  Further user-time pressure from ByteDance's content portfolio and evolving AI-office competition.

• iQIYI (IQ US)

  Long-form video platform tracked as a covered industry participant.

  Strengths

  It retained the largest monthly time-spent scale among long-form video apps.

  Weaknesses

  Monthly time spent declined 27% year-on-year and DAU declined 20%.

  Comparison

  Hongguo short drama's DAU exceeded the combined DAU of the four leading long-form video apps.

  Risks

  Continued substitution of short-form drama for long-form video viewing.

Key data

• China monthly active smartphone users1.28bnUp 1.3% year-on-year in July 2026.
• China total monthly time spent8.8% y-y growthSlightly accelerated from 8.6% growth cited in the report.
• Douyin monthly time spent29% y-y growthDriven by 19% DAU growth and 8% growth in daily time spent per DAU.
• Weixin DAU931mnLargest app by DAUs, compared with Douyin's 714mn.
• ByteDance top-50 app time-spent share40.9%Up from 33.6% in July 2025; Tencent's share was 29.1%.
• Hongguo short drama DAU168mnUp 107% year-on-year and 8% month-on-month.
• Hongguo short drama monthly time spent157% y-y growthSupported by 107% DAU growth and 24% DTSD growth.
• Doubao DAU168mnFlat month-on-month and 3.6x year-on-year.

Impact & implications

Nomura's data suggest that the main competitive shift is toward ByteDance's expanding share of user attention, particularly in short video and short-form drama. The report also frames AI office agents as the next strategic battleground as leading platforms seek to connect enterprise workflows to their models, clouds and existing office ecosystems.

What to watch

• Whether Doubao's flat month-on-month DAU marks a sustained cooling in AI-chatbot competition.
• Adoption and monetization progress of QwenWork, WorkBuddy and DoubaoWork as AI office agents.
• Whether Hongguo short drama and AI-animated drama continue to draw user attention from long-form video and reading.
• The durability of ByteDance's gains in app-portfolio time-spent share.