On February 22, QuestMobile, a domestic third-party data agency, released the "2021 China Mobile Internet Annual Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Annual Report"), which comprehensively took stock of the overall market characteristics and typical industry development summary of China's mobile Internet development in 2021. QuestMobile data shows that as of December 2021, the number of users on the whole network hit a new high of 1.174 billion, a net increase of 15.1 million during the year, of which the number of users in the four major industries such as social, shopping, video and financial management exceeded 1 billion.
Digital development continues to penetrate in an all-round way, and the life service industry has set its sights on BAT Mini Programs as the largest layout industry. It is worth noting that the attractiveness of users in the fields of entertainment content and shopping consumption continues to deepen, the stickiness of short video users surpasses that of other industries, and the total time spent by users accounts for 25.7%, and continues to penetrate into local life.
The monthly active users of the four major industries exceeded 1 billion
In 2021, the overall mobile Internet market tends to be stable, but the head industry, players and applications still maintain rapid growth. QuestMobile data shows that as of December 2021, the growth rate of the life service, automotive service, and smart device industry is the most prominent, with a year-on-year increase of 24.7%, 20.6% and 32.9% respectively.
At the same time, as of December 2021, the monthly active users of the four major industries such as social, shopping, video and financial management exceeded 1 billion, reaching 1.144 billion, 1.112 billion, 1.056 billion and 1.034 billion respectively. In addition to the slight year-on-year decline in mobile video, the other three industries have increased to varying degrees, of which financial management has the fastest year-on-year growth rate of 12.9%.
The distribution of monthly active net increase users in the mobile Internet subdivision industry also reflects the comprehensive development of digital life. According to the "Annual Report", in December 2021, integrated e-commerce, online banking and local life became the top three sub-sectors in terms of monthly active net increase in user size, while the top ten sub-sectors were evenly distributed, involving mobile shopping, financial management, life services, travel services, system tools, office business and other vertical fields.
It is worth noting that the use of short videos has surpassed instant messaging and become the industry that occupies the longest network time of people, with rapid growth momentum. QuestMobile data shows that as of December 2021, short video users were sticky more than other industries, up 4.7% year-on-year, and the total usage time accounted for 25.7%. The total time spent by instant messaging users fell by 2.2% year-on-year, accounting for 21.2%.
Life services target BAT mini programs
Specifically, life services have become the core application pool of BAT Mini Programs. In December 2012, life service Mini Programs occupied the first place in the industry classification of WeChat Mini Programs, Ali Mini Programs and Baidu Smart Mini Programs, accounting for 34%, 48% and 20% respectively. The financial consumption and tool industries also have more layouts on WeChat and Alipay platforms, while Baidu Smart Mini Programs are more inclined to the education and learning and digital reading industries.
While the rapid growth of financial management in the APP industry, it is also accelerating the layout of the Mini Program platform. According to QuestMobile data, as of December 2021, the monthly active net increase in the number of users of financial management WeChat Mini Programs reached 164 million, ranking first in the industry.
It should be mentioned that the major vertical service industries have broken through the limitations of their own platform traffic through the extensive layout of Mini Programs and achieved broader user coverage, especially in emerging industries that have risen rapidly in recent years. For example, Tongcheng Travel, as of December 2021, its APP user scale accounted for only 4.6% of the total scale, and the weChat Mini Program user scale accounted for 96.1%. The same situation is also reflected in Meituan Preferred and Tencent Documents, the former APP user scale accounted for only 7.2%, the latter WeChat Mini Program user scale is as high as 99.1%.
The e-commerce advertising war is fiercely competitive
In 2021, the Internet advertising market has a good development trend and the scale will maintain growth. According to the "Annual Report", in the second half of 2021, the Internet advertising marketing market continued to be active, and the fourth quarter ushered in the centralized marketing of e-commerce, further stimulating the marketing needs of advertisers.
In the Internet industry, the competition between e-commerce platforms is particularly fierce. According to QuestMobile data, the top three advertisers in the Internet industry in 2021 were Taobao, JD.com and Pinduoduo, with an investment of 10.693 billion yuan, 9.516 billion yuan and 7.871 billion yuan respectively. At the same time, the cost of Kuaishou and Douyin is also very impressive, reaching 1.366 billion yuan and 1.282 billion yuan.
In the non-Internet industry, beauty care brands occupy the head, and international group brands are the mainstay. L'Oréal, Unilever and Procter & Gamble were the top three advertisers, with spending of $3.349 billion, $2.971 billion and $2.037 billion respectively. Huaxizi became the only domestic brand in the top ten advertising costs of the non-Internet industry, with an annual advertising cost of 978 million yuan.
With the deepening of the online behavior of user content platforms, brands pay more attention to content marketing, accurate delivery according to the characteristics of the platform, and the advertising cost of commercial promotion in cooperation with KOLs has increased considerably. QuestMobile data shows that by the end of 2012, KOL advertising costs increased by 128% year-on-year, and display ads fell further by 7.6%.
Image credit: QuestMobile