AI App Data Reveals Doubao Leads Monthly Active Users
QuestMobile's May 2026 data indicates significant growth for AI-native apps. Doubao emerged as the leading AI-native app in monthly active users.
Market research firm QuestMobile released data on July 14, 2026, detailing the AI application market's development in the first half of 2026, with a focus on May figures.
In May, AI-native applications recorded 499 million monthly active users, an 85.4% year-over-year increase. User engagement, measured by average monthly sessions per user, reached 92.7. The data suggests that AI-native applications have, in recent months, begun to supplant AI applications from terminal manufacturers and AI application plugins.
Within the top-tier applications, Doubao, Qianwen, and DeepSeek demonstrated significant user bases. Doubao led with 382 million monthly active users, followed by Qianwen with 167 million and DeepSeek with 130 million. Doubao's monthly user growth rate stood at 172.1%, while Qianwen experienced a notable 5792.9% increase.
User engagement metrics show Doubao, DeepSeek, and Kimi with 10-minute-plus usage proportions of 27.5%, 30.0%, and 26.1%, respectively, indicating increased user stickiness compared to the previous year. Doubao's user base grew by 13.78 million in May compared to April, suggesting its "inclusive + value-added" model is retaining users despite potential monetization pressures.