Aurora Mobile Limited, a leading mobile developer service provider in China, released a report that provides deep insights into key mobile internet trends and usage that have been taking place since the outbreak of the coronavirus began prior to the Chinese New Year holiday (“CNY Holiday”). Leveraging its cutting-edge technology, analytics and ability to quickly analyze cross-industry mobile internet data, Aurora Mobile has been carefully monitoring the usage of apps in real-time throughout the outbreak.

As the coronavirus spread during the period before and after the Chinese New Year holiday, the majority people across the country remained at home and avoided outdoor activities which resulted in a sharp increase in time spent on their mobile phones by 26%. Apps from diverse categories such as online education, social media, instant messaging, home cooking, all forms of online video and mobile games, and news reading apps all saw a large spike in usage. Likewise, online-to-offline, food delivery, and ride sharing apps all saw usage fall significantly as a result of government restrictions during the outbreak.

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Key Highlights

• Usage measured by daily active users (“DAU”) on DingTalk, an Alibaba developed enterprise communication and collaboration app used in offices across China, fell to lows during the holiday, but rebounded and hit new highs, increasing 100.2% from pre-CNY Holiday levels as people had to work from home after the holidays.
• DAU growth during the 2020 CNY Holiday on Sina Weibo, one of China’s largest social media platforms, more than doubled that of the 2019 CNY Holiday and increased 31.3% from pre-CNY Holiday levels. Daily time spent per user also spiked significantly due to an increase in the number of clicks on coronavirus headlines, increasing 50% to 53.7 minutes.
• DAU and daily time spent per user on Baidu, the leading Chinese-language Internet search provider, both steadily increased after the CNY Holiday by 10.2% as people used it mainly for searches on coronavirus updates. DAU and daily time spent per user also started to rise sharply on Tencent News and Toutiao, increasing 49.8% and 20.8%, respectively, even before the CNY Holiday. Tencent News also released a daily tracker of the disease, which is widely distributed.
• Traffic on entertainment apps gained significant traction relative to last CNY Holiday and also benefitted from the longer than usual holiday. Tik Tok/Kwai/Xigua TV’s marketing campaign on the New Year’s Eve were well received. DAU for Tik Tok increased 19.4%, Kwai 26.5%, and Xigua 17.9%.  Streaming apps like iQiyi’s traffic grew significantly as well, with DAU increasing 10.7%. As people remained largely at home in an effort to reduce cross-infection, entertainment apps were used as a major way to pass time.
• Daily DAU and daily time spent traffic on online-to-offline, food delivery and ride sharing apps were most negatively impacted by the outbreak reflecting tighter than normal restrictions by the government on travel outside the home in efforts to curtail the spread of the coronavirus. Demand for ride sharing apps saw most notable declines.

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“Being able to provide real-time insights into market trends has positioned us ideally to help developers and investors carefully navigate this difficult period as the nation battles the coronavirus,” commented Mr. Fei Chen, President of Aurora Mobile. “Not only does the data provide key information that helps developers and commercial enterprises adapt and respond to changing consumer habits during the outbreak, but it also provides an alternative barometer for industry wide performance that will help strategic planning going forward.”

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