Douyin has officially become the app that Chinese users spend the longest time on.

A new report from Nomura Securities cites QuestMobile data pointing out that in July 2026, Douyin's total monthly usage duration surpassed WeChat for the first time — this is not merely the overtaking of one app by another, but a shift in the balance of power between the two major ecosystems.

Data shows that Douyin topped the list of single applications with the highest usage duration share among Chinese users at 19.4%, followed by WeChat at 18.8%. Douyin registered a 29% year-on-year growth, driven jointly by a 19% increase in DAU and an 8% rise in users' average daily usage duration; while WeChat only barely maintained growth with a meager 3% increase in DAU.

What is more noteworthy is the expansion momentum of ByteDance's overall application matrix. Its five applications — Douyin, Douyin Speed Edition, Hongguo Short Drama, Toutiao, and Tomato Free Novels — jointly account for 40.9% of the total usage duration share among China's top 50 mobile internet applications, a sharp rise of 7.3 percentage points from 33.6% a year ago, far exceeding the 29.1% share of Tencent's ecosystem.

This means that for every 10 minutes Chinese internet users spend on their mobile phones each day, more than 4 minutes go to ByteDance's products. Tencent's duration share in the social and content ecosystem is being gradually eroded by ByteDance.

Why Did Douyin Win?

The growth logic of Douyin and WeChat is completely different. Nomura's analysis shows that Douyin's growth is driven by both "quantity" and "quality" — it has more users, and each user spends more time on the app; while WeChat's growth only relies on the natural expansion of user scale, with no improvement in user stickiness.

In terms of user scale, WeChat still maintains an absolute advantage — its DAU reached 931 million, while Douyin's DAU stood at 714 million. However, Douyin overtook WeChat in total usage duration with deeper user engagement, indicating that "stickiness" is becoming more commercially valuable than "scale".

QuestMobile data also shows that in July 2026, the monthly active users of smartphones in China increased by 1.3% year-on-year to 1.28 billion. The overall market is expanding moderately, but structural changes between platforms are accelerating.

Short Drama Has Become the Biggest Variable

The sharp rise in the duration share of ByteDance's products is largely attributable to Hongguo Short Drama.

In July, Hongguo Short Drama recorded a DAU of 168 million, up 107% year-on-year, and its total monthly usage duration surged 157% year-on-year. This user scale has exceeded the combined DAU of the four long video platforms of Tencent Video, Youku, Mango TV and iQiyi.

In sharp contrast, long video platforms are collectively under pressure: the total monthly usage duration of iQiyi fell 27% year-on-year, Tencent Video fell 31%, Youku fell 47%, and Mango TV fell 24%. Users' content consumption habits are shifting from long videos to short dramas on a large scale — this trend has been fully confirmed by data.

Hongguo Short Drama has also launched a sub-application focused on AI animation short dramas called "Hongguo AI Animation Drama", whose DAU reached 16 million in July, up 37% month-on-month, with a still strong momentum of user acquisition.

At the same time, the growth of ByteDance's free reading app Tomato Free Novels shows signs of slowing down. Its DAU in July increased by 6% year-on-year to 144 million, lower than the 8% year-on-year growth rate in June. Nomura believes this may indicate that after years of rapid expansion, the user growth of this application is approaching the ceiling, and the competition from AI animation short dramas has also caused diversion pressure on literary applications.

AI Competition Shifts Gear: From Chatbots to Office Assistants

As the duration landscape changes, the AI competition among internet giants has also switched tracks.

According to QuestMobile data, although Doubao under ByteDance steadily ranks first among domestic AI chatbots with 168 million DAU, its month-on-month growth rate has returned to zero. Nomura believes this marks that the competition in the chatbot track is slowing down, and the industry is shifting to office scenarios with stronger business closed loops.

A new round of positioning battle has already begun:

• Alibaba has integrated QoderWork, MuleRun and Wukong into QwenWork, cutting into enterprise workflows with the help of DingTalk
• Tencent positions WorkBuddy as its flagship general-purpose AI office assistant, gradually integrating with WeChat, WeCom, Tencent Docs and Tencent Meeting
• ByteDance launched the Doubao Work Edition on August 25, merged the Feishu product team into Doubao at the same time, and transferred the Feishu sales team to Volcano Engine

In the field of traditional office applications, DingTalk's DAU in July was about 77 million (down 1% year-on-year), while WeCom's DAU increased by 9% year-on-year to 72 million, and the gap between the two continues to narrow. Feishu's DAU saw the highest year-on-year increase of 51%, but its base is small, at 10 million.

The Flow Center Shifts, and Then?

Douyin's first overtake of WeChat in usage duration has a direct impact on the logic of internet investment. Duration share is the underlying foundation of business models such as internet advertising, e-commerce, and content monetization — where users' time flows, commercial value flows there.

The more long-term highlight is the competition for AI office assistants, which will determine the ownership of the next-generation entry point. In the past, employees would open their computers and click on Feishu, DingTalk or WeCom first; now, more and more people click on the AI icon first. When the agent becomes the first stop after booting, traditional collaborative office software will step back from the entry point to the background, and become a capability module called by AI.

The first half of the competition is about who has more users, while the second half is about who can really get the work done well. The model competition is far from over, it just moved from the front stage to the back stage.

Whose model is more reliable in long-chain tasks will gain real pricing power in next-generation products. This war over entry points has just begun.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Tech Business", author: Tech Business, published with authorization from 36Kr.