Tencent News, Toutiao, and Yidianzixun are the top 3 mobile news apps by MAU in China in March 2017, all exceeding 100 million active users.

Tencent News is integrated with several mobile apps from Tencent family including WeChat. It’s not a surprise to see over 220 million MAU.

Related: Top Mobile Apps, Mobile App Stores in March 2017

Toutiao (or Jinri Toutiao; today’s headlines), founded in 2012, has over 172 million active users in March 2017. It’s now more than a product of recommendation engine based on data mining and offering Toutiao account registration for individual users who can share and monetize their knowledge and experiences.

The chart is from the updated E-Book – Mobile Trend in China 2017

China’s third-party internet payment transactions reached 4,058.43 billion yuan (USD 609.93 billion) in Q1 2016 with a year-on-year growth rate of 67% according to iResearch.

China’s third-party internet payment transactions on online shopping have been declining since Q1 2015 despite a slight increase in Q2, falling to 14.2% in Q1 2016. The share of the fund related transactions have increased from 18.9% in Q1 2015 to 21.9% in Q1 2016.

In terms of market share of China’s third-party internet payment providers, Alipay has 43.3% market share, followed by Tenpay (20.1%), Yinshangpay (11.1%), and 99Bill (7.0%).

Besides, Chinese internet users also make payment through WeChat banking. In another survey by iResearch, China WeChat banking users prefer to use WeChat banking on ICBC (37.9%), China Construction Bank (34%), and China Commercial Bank (28.1%). The top several WeChat banking that users use more often is ICBC (18.4%), China Construction Bank (15.9%), and Commercial Bank of China (15.2%).

China online travel market reached 155.71 billion yuan in the first quarter of 2016, up 58.9% YoY or 14.7% QoQ, according the research company Analysis.

Ctrip and Qunar led the online travel market with 35.6% and 30.2% market share in Q1 2016 respectively, followed by Alitrip (14.8%).

Chinese Consumer Confidence measured at 105 in Q1 2016, a decrease of two points from Q4 2015 but still the sixth most confident country in the world, according to the latest Nielsen survey.

Confidence in East China increased from 115 to 117, boosted by local consumers’ promising personal finance prospects. Consumers in East China are more optimistic regarding their personal finances, with 76% respondents saying they have good or very good expectations for their personal finances in the coming 12 months.

The stronger demands for high quality products have pushed forward the trend of consumption upgrading in China. China’s regions have developed at different speeds and consumer trends vary greatly among different groups and regions. Understanding the preferences and mindset of consumer groups is the key to successfully expanding a business in China, according to Yan Xuan, president of Nielsen Greater China.

Willingness to spend remains strong across cities, especially in lower tier cities, which drives sales growth. But in tier 1 cities, expectation of rising real estate prices drive down people’s willingness to spend.

In towns and rural China, with the rising disposable income, people’s willingness to spend keeps increasing, which ultimate boosted people’s intension to travel, although the number is still fewer compared to upper tier cities.

The results offer further evidence of a trend toward rising consumer spending power in the country’s less-developed rural areas.

Men’s willingness to spend hit 54 in the first quarter, higher than female consumers at 49. Men’s rising enthusiasm for spending is mainly derived from their promising expectations on employment prospects and personal financial situation.

Some 38% of the female respondents said they would stock up on goods taking advantage of sales, discounts or promotions. By contrast, only 32% of male respondents said they would do the same. Male consumers are also less likely to make impulsive purchases affected by the promotional activities, with 46% saying they only buy things they need. Only 39% of the women surveyed said they will do so.

The survey also found that male consumers tend to put more of their discretionary money into savings or family improvement while female consumers prefer new clothes and skin care and cosmetics, both online and offline.

There are other differences between men and women when it comes to online shopping behavior as well. Men prefer to buy electronic and gaming products (26.09%), while women spend more money on cosmetics and personal care products (26.96%). The survey also found that both male and female consumers spend the most discretionary spending money on clothing (70% vs 80.47), household goods (33.75% vs 36.88%) and food, beverage and health products (14.37% vs 12.91%).

Also read: Chinese Consumers More Selective on Spending Habits

Monthly active users (“MAUs”) of WeChat, including Chinese version Weixin, reached 762 million in Q1 2016 according to the latest Tencent financial results.

QQ MAUs reached 877 million in Q1 2016, an increase of 5% YoY; mobile QQ MAUs 658 million, an increase of 9% YoY. Peak concurrent user accounts of QQ in Q1 2016 was 260 million, an increase of 14%
YoY.

MAUs of Qzone reached 648 million in Q1 2016, a decrease of 3% YoY, while MAUs of Mobile Qzone was 588 million, an increase of 4% YoY.

Total revenues were RMB31,995 million (USD4,952 million) in Q1 2016, an increase of 43% over the first quarter of 2015. Operating profit was RMB13,398 million (USD2,074 million), an increase of 43% YoY.

Operating margin was 42%, the same as the first quarter of 2015. Profit for the period was RMB9,268 million (USD1,434 million), an increase of 34% YoY. Net margin decreased to 29% from 31% last year.

In April 2016, Tencent launched Enterprise WeChat, a stand-alone application which is tailored to communication scenarios at work and incorporates mobile office solutions such as calendar and company notice management.

Also read: WeChat launched Moments Coupon Ads for retailers

Momo, one of the top mobile social networking apps in China and gone public in 2014, had monthly active users of 72.3 million in Q1 2016 from 78.1 mn in Q1 2015. However, its net revenues increased by 93% year over year to $50.9 million. Momo mobile marketing revenue continued its strong momentum, growing more than 100% year over year.

Joining the live broadcasting trend of many Chinese internet companies, momo launched this business late last year. It further opened up the service to allow every individual user to broadcast live anytime, anywhere with his or her mobile device or PC.

In April 2016, Momo introduced a major update, where live broadcasting is featured as a separate tab on its mobile app, and launched a standalone application called ‘Hani’ for live broadcasting business to grow more independently.

Also read: China Social Media Users Insights in 2015