Author Susnan

On October 26, Qin Shuo, a former media man, pushed the concept of "byte time" to the center of public opinion in his article "The Terrible Red Fruit and the Byte Time of the Chinese Internet".

Citing QuestMobile data in Nomura Securities' report, the article puts forward a view on whether China's Internet is shifting from "Tencent Time" to "Byte Time". On October 27, Li Liang, Vice President of Tiktok Group, responded that the characterization was "extremely imprecise and totally nonsense".

According to media reports, Qin Shuo, the founder of "Qin Shuo's circle of friends", announced on November 2 that "in response to the recent statement of 'Tiktok Group Li Liang' that infringed on his reputation, he has entrusted lawyers to bring a lawsuit to the people's court, take measures in accordance with the law to safeguard his legitimate rights and interests, and investigate the legal liability of the infringer." The case has been entrusted to Guohao Law Firm, and has submitted litigation materials to the Shanghai court.

On November 4, Li Liang once again responded that eight years ago, WeChat relied on its monopoly position and prohibited Tiktok from sharing. So far, the litigation between the two parties has not been successful. In his view, Qin Shuo's proposal of "Byte Time" would free Tencent from the narrative of "monopoly" and instead place Byte in the narrative of "possible monopoly", even making Qin Shuo Tencent's "benefactor". This debate has jumped out of the simple right and wrong judgment and become a public topic of common concern for the entire Internet industry.

A platform that wins users and achieves commercial success does have commendable aspects. But as its influence gradually expands, companies should also answer how to use this influence and how to coordinate business growth with user interests, content quality, and social value?

Behind 'Byte Time', Red Fruit surpasses Bean Bun

QuestMobile released the "2026 China Mobile Internet Autumn Report" on November 3, which shows that according to its total de duplication user base, in September 2026, Hongguo free short plays and Doubao will reach 430 million and 419 million respectively. Hongguo has surpassed Doubao and become the application of Tiktok Group, whose user scale is second only to Tiktok Group (1.029 billion).

From today's headlines, watermelon videos, Tiktok, to red fruit short plays, tomato novels, soda music, byte content products have covered many scenes such as information, videos, short plays, reading and music; Jianying and Zhimeng AI serve content creation, while Doubao expands its application scenarios to AI Q&A and daily assistance.

The growth of a platform is essentially a competition for user time. The rise of Hongguo occurred against the backdrop of an overall slowdown in industry growth. As of September 2026, the number of monthly active users of China's mobile Internet has increased slightly by 0.9% year on year, which has entered the stock game stage. Under this logic, short dramas have become the direct beneficiaries of the overflow of short video ecological traffic. Tiktok and Kwai have accumulated a strong content distribution capability and a large entertainment user base, which provides an endless source of customers for independent short play APP.

The ability of Hongguo short dramas to quickly accumulate a user base surpassing that of Doubao is also due to changes in user age structure and geographical distribution.

QuestMobile data shows that the number of users over 46 years old has exceeded 40%, an increase of 2.6% year on year (of which, the number of users over 51 years old has approached 30%). In contrast, the number of users between 25 and 45 years old is 39%, which has dropped to below 40%. This reversal shows that the trend of "silvering" of mobile Internet users continues. The characteristics of short dramas, such as being easy to watch, requiring no learning, and having a tight rhythm, meet the needs of diverse user groups for low threshold, lightweight, and fast-paced entertainment content.

After the Internet dividend peaked, content products for specific groups were more likely to explode. Previously, Kwai Extreme Edition used user incentives to pry video into the market and achieve rapid expansion. The Red Fruit short drama mode is similar to it, relying on ByteDance's algorithm distribution capability to more accurately match user interests, thereby improving conversion efficiency.

But the underlying concerns behind this growth are equally evident. Some short dramas have melodramatic plots and rough production, making it difficult to rely on algorithm recommendations to make users "stop". Time is constantly taken away, often resulting in fragments that are forgotten after reading, emotions stirred up, and an indescribable self consumption.

This' hollowed out 'experience is the main reason why the public is concerned about' byte time '. The concern of users about "byte time" is actually asking: how does the algorithm control our attention?

Algorithms prefer a longer dwell time, which makes strongly conflicting, highly stimulating, and low threshold content more easily pushed. What people are truly afraid of is the gradual loss of deep reading, continuous thinking, and self-control after being fed in this way for a long time.

The official WeChat official account "Zhejiang Publicity" of the Publicity Department of the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee pointed out that content products are different from ordinary commodities. A bottle of water, a bag of rice, used up and done; But content products are different. They enter people's spiritual world, shaping their cognition, emotions, and value judgments. A video, a short play, or a tweet may seem light and airy, but over time they can affect how a person views themselves, others, and society.

The public's concerns have emerged, and the focus of the debate should no longer be on "right or wrong", but on the unavoidable public responsibility hidden behind it.

Besides right and wrong, there is also responsibility and accountability

Today, when "byte time" has become a national experience, byte is no longer an ordinary Internet company, but the infrastructure for the spiritual life of hundreds of millions of people. It determines what people see, believe, and spend their time on every day. It is precisely for this reason that the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has reiterated that all platforms must fulfill their main responsibilities, resolutely implement the principle of "all broadcasts must be reviewed, and all personnel must be reviewed", control the online checkpoint, effectively optimize algorithms, and resolutely rectify the mechanism design that induces addiction.

If choosing goodness, bytes can truly make users' time valuable. When algorithms begin to respect users' time and actively recommend content that is nutritious and warm, users do not feel empty or guilty after browsing, but return to life with a little gain. When platforms are willing to incorporate public interests into their algorithms, the public's recognition of mainstream values will be enhanced, and the public opinion field will be less confrontational and more rational.

If one chooses to turn towards evil and only aims to make money without any positive values, the cost will be shared by the entire society. If algorithms continue to extract attention infinitely, users will become increasingly empty and mentally drained, and their focus and thinking abilities will be unconsciously eroded. High quality content is squeezed out by malicious and low-quality content, and the online space is filled with opposition and hostility. Rumors and extreme emotions are also prone to grow bigger and bigger. Enterprises may have kept their daily life and income, but what they have lost is the public's trust in the platform and the society's patience with the Internet.

In the past two years, Tiktok has launched a security center, publicized algorithm principles, managed rumors, and supported knowledge content, proving that "good" adjustment parameters are technically feasible. However, the inertia of current traffic allocation still revolves around completion, retention, and interaction, and the system will naturally reward content that "retains people" through strong conflicts and high reversals. To correct it, the platform must actively reconstruct the metrics.

Social responsibility is not a moral requirement for enterprises, but an inherent requirement of business sustainability itself. Although technology has no values, the organization behind it cannot do without values.

How can giants avoid doing evil?

Looking back, China's Internet industry has experienced similar moments. In the "3Q War" of 2010, Tencent was pushed into the position of "public enemy" due to its "choose one from two" behavior and "do everything" expansion strategy, and was subjected to overwhelming monopoly questioning. But it was that crisis that prompted Ma Huateng and the Tencent team to reflect deeply, realizing that the "closed empire model" was no longer viable and that openness was a mission that enterprises must undertake.

Afterwards, Tencent underwent strategic transformation, moved towards openness, empowered its partners, and ultimately expanded the industry cake, achieving self transcendence.

The book "Tencent under X-ray" points out that Ma Huateng has shown great magnanimity in Tencent's strategic transformation process, which involves three aspects: self innovation from closed to open, responsibility for the industry ecosystem, and tolerance towards innovation and talent.

When a company grows into an industry leader or even holds a dominant position, the biggest challenge is how to constrain its own power, how to achieve "no evil", and how to avoid falling into vicious competition aimed at killing competitors.

Users choose a platform out of trust. If the platform uses this trust as a bargaining chip to harvest traffic, it will ultimately only lose users.

Today's Internet industry is no longer a dominant pattern. Tencent has a basic disk of social and digital content. Bytes lead the way in the field of short videos and short dramas. Little red books occupy the mind of lifestyle content. Ali, JD and Pinduoduo have their own advantages in e-commerce tracks. Meituan and Alipay firmly grasp the local life and service scenes ..... These giants together constitute the ecology of China's Internet. Each of them holds the attention of hundreds of millions of users and should take corresponding responsibilities.

Conclusion

We should not label any successful enterprise as a "monopoly" at will, but the greater the ability, the greater the responsibility. When the influence of a company has penetrated into all aspects of social life, it must break away from pure business logic and think about its own public value.

Returning to the debate on 'byte time', it is actually meaningless to dwell on 'who is right and who is wrong' and 'who is the monopolist'. What is truly important is that all giants standing at the forefront of the industry should think more about what their products have brought to users, what they have left behind for the industry, and what they have created for society.

(The author of this article is a researcher at the Jingguan Research Institute)