Abstract:
Qin Shuo issued a "Statement" today. The statement stated that in response to the recent remarks by "Douyin Group Li Liang" that infringed on my reputation, I have entrusted a lawyer to file a lawsuit with the People's Court and take measures in accordance with the law to protect my legitimate rights and interests and hold the infringing party accountable.
Controversy review:
According to news on the afternoon of October 28, Qin Shuo, the founder of Qin Shuo’s circle of friends, recently got into a “debate” with Li Liang, vice president of Douyin Group, over the argument of “whether ‘byte time’ exists on the Chinese Internet.”
The two "talked" in the air many times. Qin Shuo pointed out that Byte App has accounted for more than 40% of the total time spent on China's mobile Internet users. "Byte Time" is a summary of this significant trend, but high duration does not mean high social value. Byte should make "Byte Time" more socially meaningful.
Li Liang’s point of view is that Qin Shuo only cited the tracking and estimation data of the Top 50 mobile apps, which is wrong and the share is less than half. The characterization of “byte time” is not rigorous and is “pure nonsense.” Short video skits are a fully competitive industry, and no company can become “the xx time of China’s Internet.”
On October 26, Qin Shuo published a signed article "The Terrible Red Fruit and the Byte Time of China's Internet." The article quoted relevant data and compared the user consumption time of Tencent and Douyin systems and asked whether the Chinese Internet is starting a new order - from Tencent time to byte time, from WeChat time to "Douyin + Hongguo time"?
Data shows that Hongguo has become the fourth largest APP in China in terms of total user usage time, second only to Douyin, WeChat and Douyin Express. The average daily usage time per person on Hongguo is even more astonishing, reaching 125 minutes in February this year, surpassing Douyin and WeChat.
Why are red fruits so popular? Qin Shuo concluded that Hongguo has become an emotional distributor and time absorber driven by free content, algorithm recommendations, advertising monetization, and platform ecology.
Although under the impact of red fruit, Tencent launched the Green Bubble short drama and embedded it in the WeChat mini program to fight "red" with "green". But Qin Shuo is not optimistic about this. The main reason is that Hongguo, like many other products of ByteDance, is a highly algorithm-driven distribution machine. Byte's innate gene is to use algorithms to control human nature, and its understanding and control of human nature can be described as "the pinnacle".
Qin Shuo also emphasized that the 125 minutes of usage time per day by Hongguo users is a good figure for Byte, but it is not gratifying for users and society. The opportunity cost of 125 minutes is less time in nature, less time reading, less time thinking, and less time with loved ones. The price of this "coolness" is high, and its impact will be long-lasting.
He expressed the hope that Byte can use its powerful content flow to contribute more to social value to make up for the social cost. In this regard, Toutiao and Douyin have made some efforts and have achieved certain results.
However, the above views were refuted by Li Liang, Vice President of Douyin Group. On October 27, Li Liang posted on Weibo that one of the reasons why users are increasingly fond of Hongguo is the continuous improvement of content quality.
He pointed out that the characterization of "byte time of China's Internet" is extremely loose and "pure nonsense!" In Li Liang's view, competition on the Internet is fierce, and no company can become "the xx time of China's Internet." Among Internet products, only instant messaging has a relatively stable market structure because of the moat of the relationship chain. Products such as short dramas and short videos belong to fully competitive industries. The market competition is fierce and the market structure changes rapidly. No company can maintain the number one position in the market.
Li Liang emphasized that the real situation is that the growth rate of Tencent's short dramas and short videos far exceeds that of Douyin and Hongguo, and among Internet applications, instant messaging, games, e-commerce, and music all occupy a lot of users' "time."
“This scholar’s so-called ‘xx time of China’s Internet’ is very exaggerated, not rigorous, does not conform to the facts, and cannot stand the test of time. In fact, it is not in line with his true style,” Li Liang criticized without naming him.
In response to Li Liang's response, Qin Shuo posted a response in Moments. According to data from QuestMobile cited by Nomura Securities, among the top 50 apps in China's mobile Internet usage time in August 2026, the Byte app accounted for 41.8% and the Tencent app accounted for 28.6%. The gap between the two is about 13.2 percentage points.
The usage time of China Mobile Internet is composed of many Apps, including Byte Time, Tencent Time, Taotian Time, Pinduoduo Time, Xiaohongshu Time, Meituan Time, etc. The byte system has accounted for more than 40% of the total usage time of Chinese Internet users. Both the time share and the growth trend are very significant. "Byte time of China's Internet" is a summary of this phenomenon.
He explained that just as many scholars and media at home and abroad say that the 21st century is the Chinese century, this is a judgment of a trend. If we look at the quantity alone, China's GDP currently accounts for 17% to 18% of the world's GDP. When Henry Luce proposed that "the 20th century is the American century" in 1941, the United States' GDP accounted for a little more than 30% of the world's GDP.
Qin Shuo also emphasized that according to the Anti-Monopoly Law (Article 24), if an operator's market share in the relevant market reaches one-half, it can be presumed that the operator has a dominant market position. China Mobile Internet has no idea how many apps are competing for users’ time. When the share of Byte Group reaches more than 40%, it already has a certain dominant position in the dimension of duration. "Byte time" is a very real fact, not a myth.
He also admitted that from a social perspective, WeChat has a dominant position. The entire Tencent system plays an important role in user duration. "But the byte time of China's Internet exceeds Tencent time. This is a fact and is not an exaggeration at all."
Qin Shuo also pointed out that the Byte system accounts for more than 40% of user time, which does not mean that it creates the same proportion of user value. For example, Alipay, Meituan, JD.com, and Pinduoduo Apps are basically service-oriented and transaction-oriented. Users just leave after using them. Therefore, their duration is not comparable to Douyin and Hongguo. However, this does not mean that the value they create for users and society is not as good as Hongguo.
Qin Shuo finally emphasized that for Byte, instead of being inexplicably worried about the term "Byte Time", it is better to work hard to make "Byte Time" more socially valuable and meaningful.
Regarding Qin Shuo’s point of view, on the morning of October 28, Li Liang posted on Weibo again that there were several basic common sense errors in Qin Shuo’s analysis.
Li Liang pointed out that Qin Shuo mentioned Article 24 of the Anti-Monopoly Law and said that an operator's market dominance can be presumed if its share reaches one-half. However, the data he cited was that the Byte Group accounted for 41.8%, not even one-half. Except for Tencent's instant messaging, which has always maintained its market dominance due to the moat of the relationship chain, other products are "the king's flag on the city's head."
Li Liang said, "I guess the Japanese Nomura data was provided to Mr. Qin Shuo by someone else, and he didn't read it carefully. Nomura counts the time distribution within the Top50 Apps. The calculation method is: the sum of the total monthly usage time of a group's Apps included in the Top50 ÷ all Top50 The total monthly usage time of apps does not include long-tail apps, nor does it include PC-side Internet access time. Many people need to be online at work, and some WeChat and office software must be opened regularly. ”
Li Liang said that in other words, this is not the duration of China’s Internet at all, but the duration of the Top 50 mobile terminals of China’s Internet. In addition, Nomura's report itself notes that it is a "tracking estimate." However, Mr. Qin Shuo directly derived the "China Internet Byte Time", which is a judgmental conclusion. It is not too much to say that Mr. Qin Shuo is not rigorous and is nonsense! Because of this, I feel that this is not consistent with the style of the real scholar I have been before.
Li Liang also said, "Nomura's statistical method is also worthy of discussion. If you include the apps controlled by equity investment, the total usage time should be Tencent time. According to Mr. Qin Shuo's logic, the Chinese Internet should be Tencent time, and it has lasted for 20 years and will continue to do so. Mr. Qin Shuo, don't you think it's absurd?"
Li Liang said, "I don't remember any celebrity who said, we know why you are talking nonsense, you also know why you are talking nonsense, you know we know why you are talking nonsense, we know you know, we know why you are talking nonsense, but you are just talking nonsense."
Afterwards, Qin Shuo posted another response. In response to what Li Liang said was a "common sense error" in the analysis, Qin Shuo expressed his recognition of the historical fact that the share of dominant Internet products has changed rapidly: from portals to search to social networking, to short videos and short plays, the share of user time has been changing. "Today, content has become the first time, and the byte system has the advantage at this stage."
In response to questions about Nomura’s data caliber, Qin Shuo said that the first line of Nomura’s report states that China’s Top 50 Apps account for 93% of the entire mobile Internet usage time. “This shows that these 50 Apps basically represent the length of mobile Internet usage. This is why I proposed ‘byte time’.”
In response to the controversy about "Orchid Fragrance Is Like Us", Li Liang previously posted an article saying that Qin Shuo "wrote it himself" and why "Orchid Fragrance Is Like Us" became such a phenomenon. He commented on Moments and praised Tencent Video's work as "truly a fairy-like figure." Qin Shuo responded: "This was not written by me, and I cannot rob others of their beauty. It is nonsense to pin articles written by others on me to insinuate whether my articles have anything to do with Tencent."
“As a content company, Douyin’s spokesperson often makes bad remarks, which also makes me a little more wary of the content background of the company he represents.” Qin Shuo said in the circle of friends.
In response to Qin Shuo's remarks, Li Liang, vice president of Douyin Group, recently issued a post saying that if you know your mistakes, you can correct them, and there is no way to do good. If you know your mistakes and do not correct them, but also deliberately expand misleading views, then you are either stupid or bad. I have pointed out the error of Mr. Qin Shuo's views based on facts. Mr. Qin Shuo made a characterization that was inconsistent with the facts without understanding the details of the data reported by Japan's Nomura. This is extremely irresponsible.
Li Liang said that after this, Mr. Qin Shuo did not provide any clarification of the facts and opinions, but continued to rely on his influence, publish on Moments, and promote his misleading opinions. This has nothing to do with academic opinions! In addition, please also tell Mr. Qin Shuo that according to the latest report released by Nomura (September), WeChat regained the throne of the most popular app in China, accounting for 19.3% of the time. I personally don’t think this is important. If Mr. Qin Shuo thinks this is important, and what kind of “big characterization” can be made, I would also suggest Mr. Qin Shuo read the report before writing it.
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