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On November 3, QuestMobile released the "China Mobile Internet Autumn Report." As of September 2026, the scale of monthly active users in China's mobile internet reached 1.281 billion, a slight increase of 0.9% year-on-year; the average usage time per user in September was 189.8 hours, a year-on-year increase of 6.5%. Short drama videos and short videos have become the core sources of growth in usage time, contributing a growth rate of 111.5% as of September 2026. In that month, the total net increase in usage time for short drama video and short video apps was 13.329 billion hours and 5.717 billion hours, ranking first and second in the duration growth track, while the net increase for AIGC was 978 million hours, with the total usage time for online videos declining by 1.38 billion hours during the same period.In terms of user numbers, the top three applications within the Douyin Group in September 2026 were Douyin, Hongguo Free Short Drama, and Doubao, with deduplicated total user counts of 1.029 billion, 430 million, and 419 million respectively, with Hongguo surpassing Doubao. The top three applications in the same period last year were Douyin, Jinri Toutiao, and Douyin Lite. The user scale of the short drama video industry increased from 10 million to 400 million in less than three years, with a compound annual growth rate of 443.1%. Douyin, Kuaishou, and their lite versions occupy the top four positions in the short video industry and continue to show growth.Specifically, in September 2026, Hongguo Short Drama had 430 million monthly active users, while Hongguo Comic Drama had 7.883 million, with a year-on-year growth rate of 268.7 times. The newly launched Green Bubble Short Drama at the end of September reached 156 million monthly active users. The Hippo Theater app had 30.8 million active users in September, a year-on-year decline of 40.3%; the user volume of the top ten short drama mini-programs has exceeded that of the Hippo Theater app, with Lianqu Short Drama and Ceylon Theater having 75.17 million and 45.67 million respectively. According to iiMedia Consulting, the market size of China's micro short drama is projected to be 50.44 billion yuan in 2024, reaching 67.79 billion yuan in 2025, and expected to be 79.33 billion yuan in 2026.

According to the latest rankings from QuestMobile, in September 2026, Alibaba's AI application Qianwen App reached 158 million monthly active users, a year-on-year increase of 5077%, ranking first in growth among apps with over 100 million monthly active users. In the domestic AI native app rankings, Qianwen ranks second, surpassing DeepSeek's 123 million, but still below the first place, Doubao, which has 419 million.This growth is related to Alibaba's large-scale promotion. In November last year, the Tongyi App was renamed to Qianwen. This Spring Festival, Alibaba announced an investment of 3 billion yuan to launch a free order campaign, allowing users to order milk tea and takeout through AI. The campaign link was widely shared in WeChat groups, and the system experienced delays due to increased traffic. QuestMobile data shows that on the first day of the campaign, Qianwen's daily active users rose from about 7.06 million to 58.48 million.The year-on-year growth of 5077% was also influenced by last year's low base. Based on year-on-year data, Qianwen's monthly active users were about 3.05 million in September last year. By March this year, Qianwen's monthly active users had reached 166 million, rising to 167 million in June, and then falling back to 158 million in September, a decrease of about 9 million compared to June, with a decline rate of approximately 5.4%.

According to sources citing QuestMobile data, as of August, Tencent's short drama mini-program Green Bubble had 143 million monthly active users. In the first week of October, the weekly active users reached 89.68 million, a 44.1% increase compared to the first week of September. After officially renaming the product in July, the weekly active users approached 90 million within about three months.DataEye monitoring shows that from October 1 to 7, Green Bubble's short drama had a total of 43,000 material placements, with an average daily placement volume increasing by 57% compared to the week before the holiday. The growth mainly came from fully replacing the original short drama mini-program entrance and support from the WeChat ecosystem traffic, which includes Video Accounts. The daily active users of Video Accounts are 600 million, making it a key part of the WeChat ecosystem distribution.Green Bubble continues to expand its content offerings, including live-action dramas, AI dramas, and animated dramas. Currently, Hongguo short dramas are leading in the short drama sector with a free standalone app model, while Kuaishou, Pinduoduo, Taobao, and Baidu have also entered the short drama space.