AI App Users Surpass 700M in Q3 2025, Douyin Leads
AI Application Market Hits Record Highs in Q3 2025
New data from QuestMobile reveals explosive growth in mobile AI applications, with total users exceeding 700 million during Q3 2025. The report highlights significant disparities between different platform types:
Platform Breakdown
- Native mobile apps: 287M monthly active users (MAU)
- In-App AI integrations: 706M MAU
- Smartphone manufacturer assistants: 535M MAU
The sector saw composite growth rates of 3.4%, 9.3%, and 1.2% respectively, driven by aggressive model upgrades from major tech firms.
Industry Acceleration Strategies
Major Chinese tech companies are pushing frequent updates:
- Baidu: Every 3.8 days
- Alibaba: Every 4.6 days
- Tencent: Every 6.6 days
- Douyin: Every 8 days
The industry has also seen proliferation of MCP (Model-Cloud-Platform) services, reaching 9,384 offerings by October across four major providers.
Usage Patterns Revealed
AI plugins dominate with:
- 31 positions in top MAU rankings
- Average of 2.5 AI integrations per leading app
The top performers include:
- Baidu AI Search
- Douyin AI Search
- WeChat AI Search
PC Sector Struggles
The report identifies challenges for desktop applications:
- Only 8 AI apps in industry TOP50
- Over 85% of web apps below 500K MAU
- Just 24.7% showing positive growth Notable exceptions include DeepSeek's web version (52.5M MAU) and Baidu AI Assistant (34.26M MAU).
Engagement Metrics
Time spent remains strongest with native apps:
- Internet/AI tech companies: 117.7 minutes
- Plugins: 31 minutes
- Manufacturer assistants: 5.3 minutes Douyin maintains leadership with 172M MAU, followed by DeepSeek at 145M MAU.
The quarter demonstrated sustained innovation across model development and user experience enhancements.
Key Points:
✅ Mobile AI users exceed 700 million globally 🔥 Plugin formats dominate usage rankings ⚠️ PC web applications show limited growth potential