On March 3, the latest "2025 AI Application Layer Development Core Report" released by the research organization Quest Mobile showed that as of December 2025, the scale of domestic AI native App monthly active users (MAU) showed an obvious stepwise differentiation. Among them, Doubao and DeepSeek ranked first and second with monthly active scale of 226 million and 135 million respectively, forming a "duopoly" pattern and leading the entire industry in a discontinuous manner. Tencent Yuanbao, Ant Afu and Alibaba Tongyi Qianwen followed closely behind, firmly ranking in the top five camps.
A Quest Mobile report analyzed that in 2025, domestic AI applications are accelerating their evolution from "universal coverage" to "scenario penetration". Among the top ten AI apps with monthly active users, comprehensive assistants are still the mainstream (accounting for 6 seats), but professional AI in vertical scenarios has emerged strongly (occupying 4 seats). The list shows that professional applications focusing on specific scenarios have demonstrated strong customer acquisition capabilities: for example, Ant Afu, which specializes in professional consultants, Doubao Aixue and Kuaidui AI, which are deeply involved in subject education, and Jimeng AI, which focuses on creative design, have all accumulated a large number of highly sticky users in segmented tracks.
From the perspective of the industry ecological pattern, Internet giants still dominate the AI application landscape by virtue of their advantages in traffic ecology and product matrix. Among the top ten AI native apps, Byte and Alibaba took a total of six seats. ByteDance has demonstrated its strong "App factory" genes. In addition to the top-ranked Doubao, its Doubao Aixue and Jimeng AI were also successfully shortlisted, achieving the precise position of "universal + vertical"; Alibaba and Ant Group also performed well, with Ant Afu, Tongyi Qianwen and the universal AI assistant Lingguang released in November last year all ranking among the top ten.
In addition, the list also reflects the current status of independent large model companies. Surrounded by giants, AI startups represented by DeepSeek and Kimi still occupy an important position that cannot be ignored in the first camp and the tens of millions of echelons with their underlying technological breakthroughs and differentiated product experiences.
Industry analysts pointed out that December’s data serves as the true fundamentals of each company before the next year’s “Spring Festival Marketing War”, revealing the current competitive focus of AI 2C applications: the track has shifted from a pure competition of the underlying model capabilities to a comprehensive competition of channel customer acquisition, scenario implementation and user retention.
