Latest mobile app rankings show that WeChat, Alipay, and QQ were the most used apps in February, according to Chinese mobile internet research firm Trustdata’s latest release (in Chinese). The company posted its February figures for China’s top 200 mobile app rankings on its official WeChat account Thursday.
China’s super app, WeChat, maintained its top spot, with monthly active users (MAU) growing 2.25% month-on-month in February to 1.01 billion. Alipay, the most used non-social app, ranked second with 608 million MAU. Tencent’s social networking app crossed the 600 million mark during the month, ranking third overall.
Taobao and Jinri Toutiao were the only two apps in the top 10 that declined in February. Taobao ranked fourth overall, but active user count softened 2.8% compared with the previous month. Bytedance’s top app Jinri Toutiao user activity weakened modestly in February, declining 1.5% month-on-month to 227 million.
February figures reflected increased user leisure time during the week-long Spring Festival holiday, with social, video-streaming and entertainment, gaming, photo-editing apps the most popular categories among Chinese smartphone users.
Within the top 50, Tencent’s hit title, “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile” (PUBG Mobile), saw the fastest growth in February, surging more than 20% month-on-month. The hit game has been banned in several cities in India, leading to arrests.
Short video app active user size grew significantly during February. Bytedance’s Douyin (known internationally as TikTok) led with 303.6 million MAU, Tencent-backed short video app Kuaishou surged 10.7% month-on-month to 218.1 million, and Bytedance’s Huoshan ranked third in the category with 102.0 million MAU. Duoshan, Bytedance’s new video-based social app which launched January 15, made it into the category’s top-10 with 10.0 million MAU.
Active user count for food delivery platforms retracted in February. Meituan Waimai maintained its top spot as the biggest online food delivery platform with MAU of more than 15.6 million, however, it declined 7.3% month-on-month. Alibaba’s Ele.me ranked second with 10.7 million MAU, though February figures fell around 15% compared with January.
In cross-border e-commerce, Xiaohongshu MAU rose 16.3% month-on-month to 49.8 million; NetEase Kaola came in a distant second with 2.9 million MAU.