2026年2月应用月度追踪：本月应用：由Seedance 2.0支持的即梦

EQUITY: INTERNET & NEW MEDIA Monthly App Tracker – February 2026 Research Analysts China Internet & New Media Jialong Shi - NIHKJialong.shi@nomura.com+852 2252 1409 App of the month – Jimeng backed by Seedance 2.0 MAS rose 1.5% y-y and total monthly time spent increased 6.8% y-y in February Rachel Guo - NIHKrachel.guo@nomura.com+852 2252 1400 Monthly active smartphone (MAS) users in China, which rose 1.5% y-y to 1.28bn inFebruary 2026, have remained stable in recent months in m-m terms. The total monthlytime spent (MTS) grew 6.8% y-y in February, slowing from the 12.4% y-y rise in January2026. Bytedance’s text-to-video model, Seedance 2.0 outshines competitors Kuaishou’s (1024 HK, Neutral) Kling upgraded its text-to-video model – Kling 3.0 – on 5February. A week later, on 12 February, ByteDance (unlisted) released its Seedance 2.0video generation model, integrating it into its Jimeng app for China users. Leveraging theenhanced capabilities of Seedance 2.0, Jimeng achieved 270% y-y grossing growth inFebruary, according to Sensortower data, significantly outpacing Kling's 166% y-y growthover the same period. We noted that the grossing gap between Jimeng and the pioneer ofthis space – Kling app, has narrowed with the rollout of Bytedance’s Seedance 2.0.Kling's grossing stood at 1.8x that of Jimeng in February 2026, down from 2.5x a yearago. Geographically, Jimeng derives 99% of its revenue from mainland China, as perSensortower, while Kling demonstrates greater geographic diversification, with 22%, 12%,and 7% of its grossing arising from the US, China, and S Korea, respectively. We believethe difference was likely caused by the fact that Seedance 2.0 had not been officiallylaunched yet in overseas markets as of end-February. While Seedance 2.0 was launchedthrough Bytedance's CapCut across multiple global regions (excluding European and theUS) on 26 March, gaining users and grossing in expanded regions. The Jimeng app maintained a lead over the Kling app in terms of monthly active users(MAU) and its growth rate. According to Sensortower, Jimeng's MAU increased 3% m-min February, while Kling's MAU declined 2% m-m. It is worth noting here that, thereappears to be a downward trend in Kling's grossing per MAU since October 2025, downfrom USD0.61 to USD0.33 in February 2026, as per Sensortower, which we suspect mayhave something to do with Kling’s more aggressive promotions aimed at user acquisitions.Finally, we note that both Kling and Jimeng may derive a majority of their grossing fromtheir web versions as a desktop enables better experience for such applications. Hence,the trends we discuss here for their mobile apps may not be 100% in line with their webversions. Nevertheless, we believe that the data we have collected about their mobileapps still provide valuable insights into the trend related to their overall user engagement. BABA’s Qwen saw fastest gain in users during CNY promotion During the 2026 CNY (Chinese New Year) period, leading China AI chatbot providers,including Tencent’s (700 HK, Buy) Yuanbao, Baidu’s (BIDU US, Buy) Ernie Bot, Alibaba’s(BABA US, Buy) Qwen and Bytedance’s Doubao, rolled out marketing campaigns toaccelerate user acquisition. According to Questmobile, Qwen's CNY promotionalcampaign reaped the largest incremental daily active user (DAU) gain of 32.7mn,elevating Qwen's DAU from 5.7mn in January to 38mn in February to leap into China'ssecond-largest AI chatbot in terms of DAU. Doubao’s CNY promotion added 21.3mnDAU, reaching 95.8mn in February and further solidifying its leading position in China's AIchatbot space. In comparison, Yuanbao's CNY campaign yielded more modest results,with DAU up 10.2mn m-m to 17.2mn in February. Baidu's Ernie Bot also conducted CNYmarketing activities, though with limited impact – as its DAU increased marginally by0.1mn to 0.69mn in February. We will monitor the next month’s trend of user retention forthese chatbot apps after the CNY promotions. Production Complete: 2026-03-30 23:59 UTC ByteDance’s continued strong momentum in audio streaming space In the music streaming vertical, ByteDance’s Soda Music (Soda) maintained robust usergrowth in February, with DAU increasing 4% m-m and 90% y-y to 50mn, reaching paritywith Kugou Music's 50mn DAU (down 2% m-m and 6% y-y) and approaching QQ Music's52mn DAU (down 1% m-m and flat y-y) – both apps are owned by Tencent Music (TMEUS, Buy). We attribute the strong user growth of Soda Music in February to trafficreferrals from Douyin and aggressive promotion of AI remix songs that has helped in itsuser retention. NetEase Cloud Music (NCM; 9899 HK, Not rated) demonstrated greaterresilience, with DAU rising 4% y-y to 17mn in February. Similarly, in the long-form audio streaming (i.e., audio novels, podcast) vertical, ByteDance’s Tomato FM app exhibited stronger growth than Ximalaya (unlisted). Tomato FM’s DAUrose 22% y-y to 40mn in February, double of Ximalaya’s 20mn which was down 8% y-y. Travel-related