Article · AI translation
IT Home reported on November 3 that QuestMobile released its 2026 China Mobile Internet Autumn Report today. As of September 2026, the number of monthly active mobile internet users had reached 1.281 billion, up 0.9% year over year.
In terms of user demographics, users over 46 accounted for more than 40%, an increase of 2.6% year over year (with users over 51 approaching 30%). By contrast, users aged 25 to 45 accounted for 39%, falling below 40%. This reversal shows that the trend toward an older mobile internet user base is continuing.
The report said short drama videos and short videos contributed 111.5% of the growth in user time spent, drawing time away from areas including online video and general news and information.
Among device brands, Apple took first place with a 20.92% share of active devices, surpassing Huawei's 20.87%. Both shares declined year over year, by 0.3% and 1.7%, respectively; OPPO, vivo and Xiaomi had active shares of 18.24%, 16.79% and 10.34%, respectively, changing by 0.0, 1.3 and 0.7 percentage points, respectively;
In September 2026, AI-native apps had 546 million monthly active users, up 82.1% year over year; AI applications from device manufacturers had 783 million, up 16.9%; and PC clients had 26 million, up 82.3%. By contrast, AI application plugins and web-based AI applications on PCs declined by 15.6% and 10.4%, respectively.
In September 2026, Doubao and DeepSeek were used an average of 72.0 and 65.9 times per user per month, respectively, with average monthly usage time per user of 132.5 and 136.7 minutes, respectively, far ahead of other players. Comparing quarter-over-quarter changes, Doubao's average monthly uses and usage time per user fell by 6.1% and 7.8%, respectively, while DeepSeek's rose by 5.8% and 9.5%.
Among the leading companies, Tencent Holdings, Douyin Group and Alibaba retained the top three positions, with deduplicated total user counts (apps plus mini programs) of 1.280 billion, 1.259 billion and 1.258 billion, respectively, up 0.9%, 5.2% and 0.4% year over year. Baidu Group, JD.com and Ant Group ranked fourth through sixth, with 1.093 billion, 978 million and 968 million users, respectively, and year-over-year growth rates of -1.8%, 7.1% and 1.4%, respectively.
The report also showed that in September 2026, Douyin Group's three largest apps were Douyin, Hongguo Free Short Dramas and Doubao, with deduplicated total user counts of 1.029 billion, 430 million and 419 million, respectively. Hongguo had surpassed Doubao; last year, the top three were Douyin, Toutiao and Douyin Lite.