The 2026 Spring Festival of the Bingwu Year of the Horse has become a pivotal watershed for the development of China's consumer-grade AI platforms. With a total investment of over 4.5 billion yuan, major manufacturers launched a national-level traffic competition through red envelope subsidies, scenario linkage and ecological binding. After the Spring Festival holiday, the industry's user scale, activity structure and market pattern have undergone a comprehensive reshaping. Based on monitoring data from authoritative third-party institutions such as QuestMobile and Frost & Sullivan, as well as official information released by various platforms, Winndoo Network has comprehensively sorted out the core performance of DAU (Daily Active Users), WAU (Weekly Active Users) and MAU (Monthly Active Users) of domestic mainstream AI platforms after the Spring Festival, and analyzed the industry's growth logic and future trends.
I. Panorama of Core Active Data of Mainstream AI Platforms After the 2026 Spring Festival
This statistics covers domestic leading consumer and enterprise AI platforms, including both national-level C-end traffic platforms and technology-driven vertical leading players. The data is divided into two calibers: the peak of the Spring Festival activities and the post-holiday steady state (February 17 - 24, 2026), sourced from third-party institution monitoring and official public disclosure of each platform.
1. Doubao by ByteDance: The National Traffic Leader, Topping the Industry in Active Scale
As the exclusive AI cloud partner of the 2026 CCTV Spring Festival Gala, Doubao emerged as the biggest winner of the Spring Festival traffic war by virtue of the national exposure of the Spring Festival Gala and in-depth layout of content creation scenarios, with its active data leading the entire industry consistently.
- DAU: The peak DAU during the Spring Festival stood steadily at 120 million, with the total number of AI interactions reaching 1.9 billion on New Year's Eve alone; QuestMobile's post-holiday steady-state monitoring data shows that its DAU stabilized at 78.71 million, making it the only independent AI application in China with a steady-state DAU continuously exceeding 70 million.
- WAU: The weekly active users exceeded 155 million after the Spring Festival. Relying on the closed loop of content creation in the Douyin ecosystem, the average weekly usage frequency of users reached 12.6 times, ranking first in the industry in user stickiness.
- MAU: The official MAU disclosed in the fourth quarter of 2025 was 227 million. Industry institutions estimate that its MAU has exceeded 270 million after the Spring Festival, with the peak caliber estimated to reach 300 million, continuously topping the MAU list of domestic consumer-grade AI applications.
- Key Supplement: Its user group has achieved a comprehensive breakthrough, with county-level users accounting for 58%. The number of registered users aged over 60 surged 6 times compared with usual days, and the 30-day user retention rate reached 44.5%, the only platform in the industry with a retention rate exceeding 40%.
2. Tongyi Qianwen by Alibaba Cloud: Explosive Scenario-Driven Growth, Rising to the Second Place in the Industry
By virtue of the 300 million yuan "Spring Festival Treat Plan", Tongyi Qianwen achieved leaping growth in user scale with the scenario-based strategy of "AI + Consumption", becoming the fastest-growing AI platform during the Spring Festival and completely rewriting the industry pattern.
- DAU: QuestMobile monitoring data shows that its peak DAU reached 73.52 million during the Spring Festival activities, a 727.7% increase compared with before the activities. Affected by the withdrawal of subsidies after the holiday, the steady-state DAU fell back to the range of 45 million - 50 million, still firmly ranking second in the industry.
- WAU: The peak weekly active users exceeded 110 million during the Spring Festival holiday, and the post-holiday steady-state WAU remained at about 80 million. Users' core usage scenarios are concentrated on practical demands such as AI shopping, travel booking and local life services.
- MAU: Surging from 31.05 million in the fourth quarter of 2025 to 160 million after the Spring Festival, it achieved a nearly 5-fold growth in user scale within 3 months, becoming the third independent AI application in China with MAU exceeding 150 million.
- Key Supplement: The platform received a total of 5 billion "Qianwen Help Me" user instructions during the activities, and more than 130 million users experienced AI shopping for the first time through the platform. AI order volume in third- and fourth-tier cities soared 782 times, completing large-scale commercial verification of AI Agent in consumption scenarios.
3. YuanBao by Tencent: Social Fission-Driven Growth, Locking in the Third Place in the Industry with Official Data
Relying on the social fission advantages of the WeChat ecosystem, Tencent YuanBao achieved a rapid breakthrough in user scale through a 1 billion yuan cash red envelope activity, and officially released the core achievements of the Spring Festival activities on February 18, becoming the fourth AI application in China with MAU exceeding 100 million.
- DAU: Official data shows that the peak DAU exceeded 50 million during the Spring Festival activities, with 159 function iterations completed in 21 days and an average of over 50 million daily service requests; QuestMobile's post-holiday steady-state monitoring data shows that the DAU of its independent APP terminal fell back to 18.28 million, and the omni-channel DAU including WeChat mini-programs and ecological embedded entrances remained at about 30 million.
- WAU: The peak weekly active users exceeded 85 million during the Spring Festival holiday, and the post-holiday steady-state WAU was about 50 million. The core growth driver came from WeChat social fission, with more than 34 million users participating in the friend red envelope sharing activity.
- MAU: Official data formally announced that the MAU reached 114 million after the Spring Festival, a nearly 3-fold increase compared with 41 million in December 2025. Users under 35 accounted for 72%, and users in third- and fourth-tier cities and below accounted for 49%, with the growth rate in the sinking market significantly higher than that in first-tier cities.
- Key Supplement: The main venue recorded more than 3.6 billion lottery draws during the activities, and users completed over 1 billion AI creation tasks. AI New Year greeting Moments and AI red envelope covers became hit features, successfully converting social traffic into AI usage habits.
4. DeepSeek: Long-term Technology-Driven Growth, Maintaining a Leading Position in the Industry
As a leader in vertical technology-based AI platforms, DeepSeek demonstrated strong user penetration during the 2026 Spring Festival. Relying on outstanding large model performance and a good reputation among developers, it has maintained a leading position in the industry and become an indispensable hardcore force in China's AI market.
- DAU: According to industry monitoring data, the DAU of DeepSeek's APP terminal stabilized at about 29 million. Even without large-scale participation in the Spring Festival red envelope war, it still maintained a high user activity by virtue of high-frequency productivity application scenarios.
- WAU: After the Spring Festival holiday, its weekly active users (WAU) achieved a significant breakthrough, officially exceeding the 80 million mark, reflecting its core supporting role against the background of the resumption of post-holiday office work and the outbreak of professional creation demand.
- MAU: As early as December 2025, its monthly active user scale had reached 136 million. Against the backdrop of the overall expansion of the industry scale, its stock user base has remained stable, and the user stickiness brought by the technological moat effect has performed excellently.
- Key Supplement: Frost & Sullivan's report shows that its enterprise-level large model call volume accounted for 18.4% in the second half of 2025, ranking third in the industry; it has built a deep technological barrier in the developer group and commercial market, and is gradually transforming its technological leading advantage into large-scale growth momentum in the national-level AI market.
5. Wenxin Yiyan (ERNIE Bot) by Baidu: Search Ecosystem Linkage, Achieving Multi-Fold Growth
Relying on the inherent advantages of the search entrance of the Baidu App, Baidu Wenxin Assistant launched a Spring Festival activity with a 500 million yuan cash red envelope, achieving multi-fold growth in user scale. It focused on the seamless experience of "Search is AI" and strengthened user stickiness of its tool attributes.
- DAU: Industry third-party monitoring data shows that the peak DAU exceeded 15 million during the Spring Festival activities, and the post-holiday steady-state DAU remained at about 10 million, a doubling growth compared with the fourth quarter of 2025.
- MAU: Officially announced on February 10 that the MAU during the Spring Festival activities increased 4 times year-on-year; combined with the MAU base of about 5 million in December 2025, its MAU has exceeded 20 million after the Spring Festival, and the omni-channel caliber monitoring MAU in the industry reached a maximum of 50 million.
- Key Supplement: The depth of user usage has increased significantly, with the call volume of the image generation function increasing 50 times year-on-year, the video generation function increasing 40 times year-on-year, and the AI call function increasing nearly 4 times, realizing the transformation from festival trial to high-frequency usage.
6. Other Platforms: Focusing on Vertical Tracks, Steady Growth in Active Scale
In addition to DeepSeek, vertical AI platforms represented by Zhipu Qingyan and Kimi, although not participating in the national-level Spring Festival traffic war, have achieved steady growth in the developer and enterprise-level markets by virtue of technological advantages, with the core active data as follows:
- Zhipu Qingyan, Kimi: The steady-state DAU of the C-end independent APP is both within 10 million, with core growth concentrated in the developer and commercial markets; OpenRouter's weekly data in February 2026 shows that the weekly token call volume of Kimi and Zhipu GLM-5 reached 1.21 trillion and 1 trillion levels respectively, ranking among the top in the world, and the overseas market revenue has achieved explosive growth.
II. Core Characteristics of AI Platform User Activity After the Spring Festival
1. Significant Differentiation in Data Calibers, Ecological Entrances Becoming a Core Variable
In this Spring Festival traffic war, the data of various platforms showed obvious caliber differences: the gap between the independent APP terminal data and the omni-channel data (including mini-programs and ecological embedded entrances) can be up to 3 times. Among them, Tencent YuanBao relying on the WeChat mini-program, Doubao relying on the Douyin embedded entrance, and Wenxin Assistant relying on the Baidu App search entrance have all achieved a substantial expansion of omni-channel user scale. The growth model of pure independent APP can no longer adapt to the industry trend of national-level AI popularization.
2. Obvious Differentiation in Growth Logic, Polarization in Retention Performance
User growth during the Spring Festival is divided into two major paths: one is the "subsidy/red envelope-driven type" represented by Tongyi Qianwen and YuanBao, which achieved explosive short-term user scale growth but had a relatively low post-holiday retention rate. Tongyi Qianwen's 30-day retention rate is about 23.5%, and the DAU drop range exceeded 30% after the withdrawal of subsidies; the other is the "scenario/ecology-driven type" represented by Doubao, which realized user breakthrough by virtue of content creation and Spring Festival Gala IP linkage, with a 30-day retention rate exceeding 40% and a post-holiday active data drop range of less than 10%, showing a significant advantage in user stickiness.
3. Comprehensive Breakthrough of User Groups, Sinking Market and Silver-Haired Group Becoming New Growth Drivers
The Spring Festival has become a key node for the popularization of AI to the whole people. The user groups have rapidly penetrated from young people in first- and second-tier cities to third- and fourth-tier cities, county markets and silver-haired groups. Data shows that the order volume/usage volume of leading platforms in third- and fourth-tier cities and below soared up to 782 times, and nearly 4 million users over 60 completed their first food delivery and shopping operations through AI platforms. AI has gradually transformed from a "technology trial tool" to a life service infrastructure covering all age groups and all regions.
III. Industry Pattern Evolution and Future Trends
After the 2026 Spring Festival traffic war, China's consumer-grade AI market has completely bid farewell to the "hundred-model war" and entered a new pattern of "head concentration and echelon differentiation": Doubao and Tongyi Qianwen form the first echelon, accounting for nearly 70% of the daily active share of domestic general-purpose AI products in total; YuanBao and Wenxin Assistant form the second echelon, holding the core user base relying on their own ecosystems; platforms such as DeepSeek and Zhipu Qingyan focus on vertical tracks and form differentiated advantages in the developer and enterprise-level markets.
Winndoo Network believes that in the long run, the short-term traffic growth brought by red envelopes and subsidies is unsustainable, and the core competitiveness of AI platforms will return to model capabilities, scenario implementation and ecological closed loops. User education during the Spring Festival has completed the cultivation of national-level AI usage habits. In the future, the core competition of the industry will shift from "user scale competition" to "user value mining". Whoever can convert one-time users during the festival into high-frequency and high-stickiness long-term users will occupy the ultimate advantage in the wave of AI nationalization.
Mail: cong.song@winndoo.com
