--- source_url: "https://marketingtochina.com/douyin-statistics-and-trends/" title: "Douyin Statistics: 2026 Monthly Active Users and Insights" mirrored_at: 2026-08-08T03:38:26.094Z host: marketingtochina.com cited_in_42a: true mirror_canonical: "https://index.42a.ai/marketingtochina.com/douyin-statistics-and-trends/index" --- > **Original source:** https://marketingtochina.com/douyin-statistics-and-trends/ Douyin passed 907 million monthly active users in October 2025 (QuestMobile), and the number is still climbing. As China’s dominant short-video platform, [Douyin](https://marketingtochina.com/douyin-marketing-trends/) keeps reshaping how Chinese consumers discover brands, shop, and spend screen time. For marketers, the platform’s numbers are the budget case: they tell you who is there, how long they stay, and what they buy. At GMA, we’ve spent years running Douyin campaigns for international brands, and we’ve seen data-driven strategies turn the platform into a serious growth channel. Here are the Douyin statistics for 2026 that we actually use with clients, each with its year and source. _Updated July 2026. Every figure below carries its reporting period; older years stay visible as history._ Book a free consultation with our China marketing specialists. We'll analyze your brand's potential and recommend the right approach. [Get a Free Consultation](https://marketingtochina.com/contact-us/) ## Quick Summary - **907 million** monthly active users on the main app (QuestMobile, October 2025); counts above 1 billion include Douyin Lite. - **120+ minutes** of average daily use per user (2025 industry aggregations). - **~73%** of users were under 36 in 2024 (Statista), and the 35+ segment is the fastest-growing. - **~3.5 trillion yuan** in e-commerce GMV in 2024, up about 30% year on year (36Kr). - **Shelf e-commerce grew 49%** year on year through July 2025, faster than the platform overall (36Kr). - **Kuaishou, the closest rival, counts 712 million MAU** (Q1 2025 company results), with a lower-tier-city center of gravity. - **550 million+** people were already using Douyin search monthly back in 2021 (ByteDance), which is why discovery on the app now runs through search as much as the feed. ## Overview of Douyin Social Media Platform **Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok** (and in fact the mother app, since TikTok came after), was **launched in September 2016**. Its immediate success pushed ByteDance to launch TikTok, the international version, just one year later. Why did Douyin take off so fast in China? It filled a real gap with a format nobody else owned at the time: **short videos**. User growth has been relentless since, and the ladder tells the story: 639.4 million monthly active users in 2021, 746.5 million in 2023, and **907 million as of October 2025** (QuestMobile). That makes Douyin China’s second app by monthly users, behind only WeChat at over 1.4 billion (QuestMobile, October 2025). One counting caveat we flag for every client: figures above 1 billion circulate too, and they typically fold in Douyin Lite and the wider ByteDance app family. Always check which basis a source is using before you put a number in a deck. For how Douyin compares with its international twin, see our [Douyin vs TikTok breakdown](https://marketingtochina.com/differences-between-tiktok-and-douyin/). ![Douyin statistics overview: China's leading short video app](https://marketingtochina.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Douyin-tiktok-1024x576.jpg) ## User Base and Demographics ### Douyin passed 900 million monthly active users in 2025 Douyin crossed the 900 million MAU mark in 2025, reaching 907 million in October (QuestMobile). Growth has slowed from the land-grab years, which changes the marketing math: new reach on Douyin now comes from taking attention share, not from waiting for new users to arrive. ByteDance keeps finding fresh engagement surfaces anyway, from commerce to local services, and we’d bet the next growth stories come from those layers rather than raw user counts. ![Douyin user statistics compared with other Chinese short video platforms, end of 2022](https://marketingtochina.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/douyin-data-1024x672.png) The chart above (end of 2022) is kept for history: Douyin led the short-video field then, and it still does. The gap to second place has simply gotten more interesting, as the Kuaishou comparison below shows. ### Around 73% of Douyin users are under 36 years old About 73% of Douyin’s users were under 36 in 2024 (Statista), with the 24-30 bracket the single largest group. The platform still reads as young, but the fastest-growing segment is 35 and older, pulled in by e-commerce, live streaming, and local services. You can even find [Douyin senior influencers](https://marketingtochina.com/a-new-target-market-for-chinese-short-video-platforms-the-silver-generation/) with millions of followers. Gender splits close to even: 54% male, 46% female (QuestMobile, 2024). Which means very few consumer categories can rule Douyin out on demographics alone; the question is whether your specific buyer’s attention is worth the content cost, and that’s a category-level call. ### Most Douyin users now live outside tier-1 cities Lower-tier China is where Douyin’s volume lives now: 2023 platform data already put tier-3 cities at 22.2% and tier-4 and below at 30.6% of users, against 8.2% for tier-1 and 19.4% for new tier-1 cities. Roughly two in five users came from lower-tier cities in 2024 aggregations. Premium consumption still concentrates in tier-1 and tier-2 wallets, so point the campaign at what you’re selling: volume lives low, margin lives high. ![Douyin users by city tier, 2023 platform data](https://marketingtochina.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/DOUYIN-USER-DEMOGRAPHICS-3-1024x576.png) The classic contrast with [Kuaishou](https://marketingtochina.com/kuaishou-marketing-insights/) has narrowed but not disappeared. Kuaishou reported 712 million MAU and a record 408 million DAU in Q1 2025 (company results), with daily time per user at 133.8 minutes, and its center of gravity remains lower-tier and rural China with a strong authentic-everyday content culture. If your product’s story is aspirational, Douyin usually wins; if it’s value-for-money at scale, test both. ## Spending Habits and Social Media Trust ### Douyin users spend more than global users on other social media platforms Douyin users out-spend social media users elsewhere, a pattern Deloitte’s 2023 China e-commerce report documented: a larger share of Douyin users passed 5,000 RMB in annual in-app spending than global social platform users, who clustered around 2,000 RMB. We treat the exact ratios as 2023 history, but nothing in the 2024-25 GMV numbers below suggests the direction has changed. ![Douyin user spending statistics from Deloitte 2023 China e-commerce report](https://marketingtochina.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/DOUYIN-USER-DEMOGRAPHICS-4-1024x576.png) Why does Douyin convert so well? The mechanics haven’t changed: engaging short video puts the product in context, trusted creators vouch for it, and the purchase closes inside the app without a redirect. Entertainment, trust, and convenience in one loop. That loop is also why average daily time on the app, over 120 minutes per user in 2025 aggregations, translates into revenue rather than just watch time. ![Lancome brand account and store on Douyin](https://marketingtochina.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/lancome-douyin-902x1024.png) ### Social media became the most trusted channel for gathering information about products and services Social platforms are where Chinese consumers check products before buying, and Deloitte’s 2023 survey put the preference at 82%, far ahead of e-commerce platforms at 50% and search engines at just 2%. The chart below keeps those 2023 findings as reference. The practical takeaway hasn’t aged: in China, product research happens on social feeds and in-app search, not on Baidu, so your Douyin content is your storefront window whether or not you run a store. ![Deloitte 2023 chart: social media as most trusted product information channel in China](https://marketingtochina.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/DOUYIN-USER-DEMOGRAPHICS-5-1024x576.png) ## Douyin eCommerce Statistics Douyin e-commerce reached roughly 3.5 trillion yuan in GMV in 2024, up about 30% from 2023 (36Kr), which makes it China’s third-largest e-commerce operation behind Taobao and Pinduoduo. The ladder for your next budget deck: Year Douyin e-commerce GMV Source 2022 ~1.4 trillion yuan industry reports 2023 ~2.7 trillion yuan platform reports via industry roundups 2024 ~3.5 trillion yuan (+30% YoY) 36Kr 2025 4.2 trillion yuan target; +34% YoY through July 36Kr Two structural notes matter more than the headline. First, live streaming still carries most of the GMV, but **shelf e-commerce (Douyin Mall, search-driven store traffic) grew 49% year on year through July 2025** (36Kr), so Douyin is quietly becoming a place people go to shop, not just a place shopping happens to them. Second, growth like this in a soft consumption year tells you where Chinese retail attention actually sits. Which means for most consumer categories, the entry question is no longer “should we sell on Douyin” but “which of our lines goes first.” ## Content Trends on Douyin ### Video formats and duration Short-form video of 15 to 60 seconds remains Douyin’s bedrock format. Long-form video gives creators room for deeper content, and live streaming keeps growing as the interactive layer where influencers and brands sell in real time. Format choice follows the job: short for discovery, long for trust, live for conversion. ![Douyin video content formats on the app](https://marketingtochina.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Douyin-Screenshot.jpg) ### Content categories Beauty, travel, and food stay the volume categories, full of tutorials, reviews, and shoppable moments. The growth is in informative content: education, skills, and socially conscious topics keep gaining share of attention, consistent with a user base that’s aging up and searching more. One number explains the search point: Douyin’s in-app search passed 550 million monthly users back in early 2021 (ByteDance), rivaling Baidu’s app at the time, and discovery has kept shifting toward searchable content since. If your videos aren’t findable by keyword inside Douyin, you’re invisible to a large share of purchase journeys. ### Virality and challenges Viral content on Douyin still runs on catchy audio, sharp editing, and relatable storytelling, amplified hard by the recommendation algorithm. Challenges remain the participation engine: users add their own spin, and brands that seed the right challenge buy user-generated volume no media budget can match. The catch we always flag: challenge virality is rented, not owned, so pair it with an account and store that can catch the traffic. ## What’s Likely to Come Next on Douyin? Watching the platform’s moves through 2025 and into 2026, here’s where we expect Douyin to press next: ### Local-life services keep scaling Restaurant vouchers, hotel bookings, and group deals have grown into a direct fight with Meituan, and Douyin keeps investing in the category. For any brand with physical locations in China, local-life is currently the most underpriced attention on the platform. ### AI search and recommendation products ByteDance is folding AI assistants and AI-generated summaries into Douyin’s search and feed. Expect discovery to get more query-driven, which rewards brands whose content answers real questions rather than chasing trends only. ### Algorithm governance Chinese regulation keeps shaping the feed: anti-addiction limits for minors and preferential distribution for educational content have been tightening since 2021. Practical consequence for brands: informative formats get structural tailwind, pure junk-food content gets throttled. ### Ad products and commerce tooling Douyin’s ad stack keeps deepening around commerce: search ads, shelf placements, and creator-commission tools ship faster in China than their TikTok equivalents abroad. Cross-border marketers can treat Douyin as the preview of what TikTok Shop markets get 12-24 months later. ## We Can Help You Turn These Numbers into a Douyin Strategy If the 907 million users and the 3.5 trillion yuan GMV made your budget conversation easier, the next step is turning them into a category-level plan: where your buyer sits in the demographics above, and which commerce surface (live, shelf, local-life) fits your product. Gentlemen Marketing Agency is a **certified Douyin Partner**. We run account setup, content production, KOL campaigns, and Douyin store operations for international brands. [**Get a Douyin data briefing for your category**](https://marketingtochina.com/contact-us/) and we’ll walk you through the numbers that matter for your entry decision. ![GMA certified Douyin partner banner](https://marketingtochina.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/banner-douyin-certified-1536x864-1-1024x576.png)