As Chinese netizens become increasingly glued to their mobile devices, a QuestMobile report reveals that they spend 15% of their screen time — about 22 hours per month on average— on short videos.
The populous country has an internet population of nearly 900 million as of June. On the back of the rapid proliferation of smart gadgets, the amount of time Chinese netizens spent on digital devices reached six hours per day, according to Chinese research firm QuestMobile.
The netizens’ time spent on social apps topped the charts at 35%, followed by short video platforms and other forms of videos, with shares of 15% and 11%, respectively. Mobile games and newsfeed apps ranked fourth and fifth.
As of June 2019, short video apps altogether collected 821 million monthly active users (MAUs) in China, up 32% from the same period last year. This compares to a year-on-year MAU growth of 2.4% for the entire online video streaming industry.
The world’s most valuable startup ByteDance gained 588 million MAUs in June, leading the scene through its library of short video applications including Douyin (marketed as TikTok globally), Xigua Video, and Huoshan Video. The runner-up was Tencent-backed Kuaishou with 340 million MAUs in the same time span.
Meanwhile, Tencent’s homegrown short-video app Weishi owned 105 million MAUs, although Tencent reportedly disbursed subsidies worth USD 242 million to entice influencers on the platform as part of its efforts to boost its content businesses.