On April 26, QuestMobile, an authoritative third-party data agency in China, released the "2022 China Mobile Internet Spring Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Spring Report"), which comprehensively took stock of the overall market characteristics and typical industry development summary of China's mobile Internet development in the first quarter of 2022.
QuestMobile data shows that in the first quarter of 2022, the mobile Internet ushered in a small peak of traffic growth, as of the end of March, the monthly active user scale reached 1.183 billion, and the monthly per capita usage time reached 162.3 hours, an increase of 12.1% year-on-year, showing that the depth of user use is still continuing.
This traffic growth is mainly driven by the middle-aged and elderly groups over the age of 40, which also makes the current market expansion focus need to be adjusted accordingly. At the same time, based on 5G and Internet of Things infrastructure coverage, the Internet of Everything has promoted the popularization of smart terminals, and the segmentation and competition of users have further complicated, and major manufacturing manufacturers have accelerated their efforts to lay out online services based on their traditional industry market advantages.
In the first quarter, the scale of users ushered in a small peak of growth
Under the overall stabilization of the scale of mobile Internet users, a small peak of traffic growth was ushered in again in the first quarter of 2022. According to the "Spring Report", as of the end of March, the monthly active users of the mobile Internet reached 1.183 billion, a net increase of 20.91 million year-on-year. From March 2020 to March 2021, the monthly active user scale increased by only 6.03 million.
In addition to the acceleration of the growth of monthly active users, the user's network use still maintains a steady deepening, the monthly per capita use time increased by 12.1% year-on-year, the year-on-year growth of user time returned to double digits, and people's life online continued to deepen.
Driven by the popularity of mobile Internet and the trend of population aging, the middle-aged and elderly groups over 40 years old became the main source of user growth in the first quarter. QuestMobile data shows that in the age distribution of China's mobile Internet, 41 to 50 years old increased by 0.4%, 51 years old and above increased by 1.6%, and 40 years old and below age groups are declining.
The overall inter-city distribution structure of users on the whole network has stabilized, and as of March this year, users in new first-tier, second-tier and third-tier cities have shown a slight increase with the flow of social population. Among them, the inter-city distribution of users in second-tier cities has grown most obviously, with a year-on-year increase of 0.6% compared with last year, while fourth-tier cities, fifth-tier cities and below have experienced slight declines of varying degrees.
The online life needs of users have also promoted the growth of user penetration in industries such as integrated e-commerce, and accelerated the process of digitization of user lives. In terms of the active penetration rate of subdivision industries, the growth rate of comprehensive e-commerce is the most obvious, with a year-on-year increase of 8.4%. The active penetration rate of browsers, payment settlements, and online banking is also considerable, with year-on-year growth reaching 5.5%, 5.5% and 8.1% respectively.
The Express Edition app has become the focus of contention in the sinking market
The middle-aged and elderly group over the age of 40 became the main source of user growth in the first quarter, and also made corresponding adjustments and changes in the focus of mobile Internet market expansion. QuestMobile data shows that sinking users are relatively more preferring video, cars and other content, and older users are relatively more preferring information content.
It is reported that with the development of content video, the scale of express users mainly originates from the mobile video industry. According to the Spring Report, in March 2022, in terms of the size of monthly active users, the Douyin Express Edition reached 208 million, the Kuaishou Express Edition reached 204 million, the iQiyi Express Edition reached 19.62 million, and the JD Express Edition reached 17.96 million.
"The Express Edition app's core features of simplified functionality and ease of operation can help enterprises obtain more sinking market traffic." QuestMobile analysts said that at the same time, the express version of the APP installation package is small, saves traffic, runs smoothly, and has a good user experience. These features have relatively low requirements for mobile phone configuration, and can be adapted to low-end smart phones to obtain more traffic.
Some companies choose to accurately target the target group of their products, and use paid incentives to increase the user stickiness of the elderly group and promote product penetration. The data shows that for users aged 51 and above on the whole network, youqu video accounts for 71.8%, OPPO wallet accounts for 58.2%, and Douyin volcano version also accounts for 53%. These apps also use features such as prize check-in to cultivate user habits to varying degrees.
At the same time, in order to cover different user groups to obtain more traffic, some enterprises have developed different versions of applications to meet the personalized needs of different groups while promoting the digital penetration of products. According to the "Spring Report", compared with the Weibo APP, the proportion of female users in the international version of Weibo is higher, reaching 61.9%, while users aged 19 to 30 account for 60.8%. For users aged 51 and above, the youku classic app accounts for 40.1%, while the Youku video APP accounts for only 10.2% of the same age group.
The Internet of Everything stimulates new vitality in market development
China's 5G and IoT infrastructure coverage is already in the world's leading position, providing good conditions for the market development of AIoT. According to the Spring Report, as of the end of March 2022, the number of 5G base stations in China reached 1.559 million, accounting for more than 60% of the world; the scale of cellular IoT end users in China reached 1.52 billion.
Based on its huge end-user base, the intelligent terminal manufacturer is the first to realize the comprehensive layout of online application services. As of March 2022, in terms of system tools, utilities, mobile shopping, and financial management, vivo end users accounted for more than 99%, of which vivo app store, vivo browser, vivo wallet end users accounted for 99.9%.
Major manufacturing manufacturers are also accelerating their efforts to lay out online services based on their traditional industry market advantages. It is reported that as of March 2022, the total number of users of home appliance manufacturers, Midea Group reached 8.336 million, Haier Zhijia reached 3.907 million, Covos robot reached 2.619 million, gree electrical appliances reached 460,000. The gap in the total number of users of automobile manufacturers is relatively small, with Great Wall Motors reaching 3.356 million, Changan Automobile reaching 2.467 million, and BYD reaching 2.383 million.
In addition to providing online services, manufacturers are also strengthening the construction of private domain traffic, strengthening the connection between brands and users through multi-platform layout. QuestMobile data shows that in the home appliance manufacturer market, KOL user activity is relatively more concentrated in small household appliance brands, such as Jiuyang's main KOL platform for Douyin, WeChat and B station, the number of deduplication user activities reached 2.06 million, and the gap with other home appliance brands is obvious. The distribution of KOL active users of automobile manufacturers is relatively more balanced, and the gap in the number of deduplication active users is small.
What is striking is that the year-on-year growth rate of monthly active users of app in the smart automotive industry has maintained rapid growth for a long time. In the past year, the year-on-year growth rate of monthly active users of smart automotive app has remained above 70%, especially the monthly active user scale of smart car APP of automobile manufacturers has increased significantly. In March 2022, SAIC Volkswagen's monthly active number reached 2.917 million, an increase of 397.5% year-on-year, and BYD's automotive activity reached 2.383 million, an increase of 188.4% year-on-year. Thanks to the continuous growth of passenger car sales and the improvement of new network infrastructure such as the Internet of Things, the demand for smart car APP has increased rapidly.
Image credit: QuestMobile