In February 2026, the competitive logic of China's AI application market is undergoing a transformation: top manufacturers are no longer fixated on competing model parameters, but are accelerating the construction of task execution capabilities within the ecosystem. With the help of e-commerce and local life scenarios, deeply embedded in social chains, and combined with the operational leverage of the national level node of the Spring Festival, multiple manufacturers have adopted a "real gold and silver" subsidy strategy to shift users' minds from "trying new things" to "daily use".

1、 Application Market: Platform side proactive advertising drives up AI search volume, industry index hits a six-month high

In February 2026, due to the increase in enterprise investment and the launch of new AI applications, the mapping range of "AI" related keywords in the App Store will significantly expand. According to DianDian data monitoring, the "AI search result count" (i.e. the number of applications covered by keywords) has steadily climbed from about 196 to a peak of 211; At the same time, users' willingness to actively explore is unprecedentedly high. As of February 15th, the "AI Search Index" (reflecting user search popularity) in the app store has reached 10435 points, a new high in six months.

DianDian analysis suggests that the growth during this stage is mainly due to active platform advertising, which has driven a natural increase in search volume; The peak of traffic in mid February was entirely driven by operational activities - these activities successfully activated hidden user demands, prompting a large amount of "passive traffic" to transform into "active search".

In late February, although the number of applications participating in traffic competition in the market fluctuated, user activity not only did not weaken before the Spring Festival, but also showed strong stickiness, reflecting that market attention is accelerating towards top platforms or a small number of core apps. This trend is closely related to the demand rhythm of users shifting from 'trying new things' to' daily use '.

2、 Index ranking: GEO attribute applications show growth differentiation, with Qianwen, Yuanbao, and ima indices leading the gains

In February, the Chinese AI application market presented a stable pattern of dual core parallel development of dialogue based applications (GEO attribute) and retrieval based applications (SEO attribute). Among them, dialogue based applications focus on natural language interaction and task execution, accounting for 60% of the TOP30 and occupying the main market share; Retrieval applications focus on information acquisition, knowledge services, and tool efficiency, accounting for 40% of the market share and maintaining an important market position.

This classification caliber originates from the evolution of distribution logic in app stores: SEO (Search Engine Optimization) corresponds to search applications, meeting the needs of users for active search and information acquisition; GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) corresponds to dialogue based applications, meeting the needs of users to solve problems through dialogue interaction and generative answers.

The two types of applications together constitute the fundamental ecosystem of the current industry, and also provide a clear analytical framework for observing the growth and differentiation characteristics of generative dialogue applications. From the perspective of specific application performance, versatile products that combine dialogue and retrieval capabilities (such as the TOP3 Baidu, Doubao, and QQ browsers) are more favored by users; The internal growth differentiation of GEO attribute applications is obvious - Qianwen and Yuanbao rely on the Alibaba and Tencent ecosystems to achieve high growth of 8.13% and 7.09% respectively, while DeepSeek and Kimi face pressure from user attention diversion, declining by 1.24% and 1.75% respectively.

The Alibaba AI Assistant App Index has entered the 9000 point range for the first time. According to DianDian data monitoring, with huge subsidies for e-commerce and local living, Qianwen's user downloads on the App Store increased by 36.08% month on month in February, and user activity increased by 58.64%. It has been ranked first on the App Store chart for 8 consecutive days since February 6th (until it was surpassed by Ant Group on February 14th), and the promotion effect of "real money and silver" is significant.

DeepSeek and Kimi ranked 6th and 11th respectively on the list for the month, with varying degrees of decline in their indices, with month on month performances of -1.24% and -1.75%. Perhaps it reflects the impact of giant ecological integration on independent AI assistants - after Alibaba, Tencent, and others deeply embed AI capabilities into high-frequency scenarios such as office, social, and e-commerce, independent AI assistants lacking ecological support are facing pressure from user attention diversion.

3、 Top 10 list of AI browsers: user stickiness refracts product positioning differences, and AI Tiktok stores decline

In the AI browser race, Baidu, QQ Browser, and Quark remain in the top three. Among them, QQ Browser, with its deep integration of search engine and AI office learning assistant, saw a 2.08% increase in user activity compared to the previous period. Sogou Browser ranks fourth closely behind.

From the distribution of activation frequency among active users, there are significant differences in user stickiness among the three top products, reflecting different user behavior characteristics. The proportion of low-frequency quark users (1-3 times) is the highest, reaching 68.35%; QQ Browser has a total proportion of 21.29% among high-frequency users (more than 10 times), leading the way among the three, especially among ultra high stickiness users (≥ 15 times); The total proportion of high-frequency users on Baidu is 13.09%, which is between QQ Browser and Quark.

DianDian data analysis suggests that this distribution feature reflects the differences in user positioning among the three products. Quark is known for its lightweight AI tool attributes and is more inclined to attract users to try it out with its rich functionality and broad AI capabilities. However, there is still significant room for improvement in cultivating user habits and building high-frequency demand scenarios. In contrast, Baidu's AI intelligent search and QQ Browser's AI office and learning positioning focus more on embedding products into users' daily high-frequency scenarios, helping users complete high-frequency and continuous tasks, which is more conducive to driving users to form stable and continuous usage habits.

AI Tiktok ranked fifth in the breakdown list, with 4.561 million active users in February, down 17.21% month on month. AI Tiktok is deeply embedded in Tiktok ecology, which aims to enable users to get instant question answers through the AI portal of the search box or video page. Its core logic is to shorten the path from "content consumption" to "information acquisition".

However, the user habit of "asking AI for help when faced with problems" has not yet formed. In the user review information of the app store, there are constant criticisms such as "deep functional entrances", "messy page layout", "1GB of software", and "pirated Xiaohongshu". According to the monitoring of spot data, AI Tiktok's ranking in the App Store declined significantly from January to February 2026, with the largest decline of more than 70 in the app list and the general list.

4、 AI Knowledge Base TOP10 Ranking: ima - Tencent AI Workbench leads the way, with over 13 million monthly active users across all platforms, driven by scenario demand, resulting in a 94.21% increase in user growth for 'Talking Bag AI Notes'

Unlike the high concentration of the AI browser race, the asymmetric growth characteristics of the AI knowledge base race are evident. Among them, ima Tencent AI Workbench, through seamless linkage on WeChat and PC, accurately undertakes the urgent need for post holiday knowledge organization. In February, it led the way with an active scale of 1.614 million on the App, up 2.44% month on month. Flomo Floating Ink Notes had 651000 active users in February, a month on month increase of 1.83%, ranking second. The monthly activity of other applications is mostly concentrated between 100000 and 200000, focusing on knowledge structure management in specific scenarios such as voice recording, card notes, and quick memos. Except for a slight decrease in user activity on a month on month basis in Yuque and Ruliu, they have all achieved significant positive growth.

At the specific application level, ima, as Tencent's AI workbench based on a knowledge base, is supported by a hybrid big model. It is the first in China to launch a content ecosystem centered on AI knowledge base, Knowledge Base Square, and continuously explores from AI tools to platform based products, becoming a top 1 product leading the AI knowledge base track. According to DianDian data monitoring, ima has maintained a high frequency of iterations since its launch, with as many as 52 iterations in the iOS market alone in the past year; In terms of user ratings/reviews, the monthly average growth is about 1118, and the five-star rating rate continues to exceed 92%, demonstrating a high level of user activity and satisfaction.

Recently, the advantage of integrating ima with the WeChat ecosystem has emerged, helping users quickly import their daily study and office files into the AI knowledge base. According to Tencent's latest publicly disclosed financial report, the total number of knowledge base files managed by ima has exceeded 420 million, covering more than 20 industries such as technology, finance, education, healthcare, law, and government affairs. The monthly active users of the entire platform (App/PC/Mini Program, etc.) have exceeded 13 million. This data far exceeds the independent active scale of the app, indicating that AI knowledge management is no longer a niche demand, but is becoming a must-have for office workers.

Although the user activity is not high, the month on month growth rate has almost doubled, becoming a small dark horse with a proportion of 94.21%. This application has the advantage of lightweight capabilities of 'voice recording+text organization', accurately capturing the demand rhythm before and after the Spring Festival - intensive pre holiday and year-end reviews, post holiday resumption planning meetings, and 'recording to structured summary' have become strong demands, driving a cumulative download of 95300 times in February, with peaks concentrated around the Spring Festival holiday.

5、 Summary: User demand is shifting from "trying new things" to "problem-solving", and AI applications are winning in high-frequency scenarios

In February 2026, the focus of competition in the AI application market has shifted from model parameter competition to task execution capabilities within the ecosystem. The user demand has shifted from "trying new things" to "problem-solving", and the deepening of scenarios has replaced general functions as the key to growth.

From Qianwen leveraging local life scenarios to achieve exponential growth, to ima relying on WeChat ecosystem to meet the urgent needs of knowledge management, and to Shuibao AI note taking becoming a "little dark horse" in post holiday office scenarios - the commonality of growth lies in successfully embedding high-frequency scenarios into users and integrating them into daily task streams. The key to the success of AI applications is no longer a single technical parameter, but whether it can occupy an irreplaceable position in the high-frequency scenarios of users.