Securities app activity declined significantly in February due to fewer trading days during the Spring Festival holiday. According to data from Analysys Qianfan, the monthly active users (MAU) of securities apps reached 170 million in February 2026, down 7.52% month-on-month but up 2.62% year-on-year. Yang Ling, a securities industry consultant at Analysys Qianfan, stated that this change resulted from a combination of seasonal Spring Festival factors and structural market resilience. The 2026 Spring Festival holiday reduced the number of effective trading days to just 14 in February, six fewer than in January. During the holiday, investor trading activity naturally decreased, while some investors opted to hold cash or postpone account opening and funding plans before the holiday. These overlapping factors led to a substantial month-on-month drop in MAU.
Among brokerage apps, 11 platforms each recorded over 6 million MAU. Huatai Securities' Zhang Le Fortune led with 11.8619 million MAU, followed closely by Guotai Junan Securities' Haitong Junhong with 10.2286 million. Apps from Ping An Securities, CITIC Securities, and China Merchants Securities consistently remained in the top five. Among third-party securities service apps, Tonghuashun, East Money, and DZH maintained high MAU levels exceeding 10 million, with Tonghuashun leading the entire industry at 35.7398 million MAU.
Since the beginning of 2026, brokerage apps have accelerated their update cycles. Updates generally revolve around four key dimensions: deepening AI applications to redesign traditional app interaction logic; building and improving ETF investment ecosystems; refining and smartening trading decision-making tools; and diversifying content and service experiences.
The Top 20 securities apps have formed a stable group, with only minor ranking changes. Only two brokerages achieved MAU exceeding 10 million: Huatai Zhang Le Fortune (11.8619 million) and Guotai Junan Haitong Junhong (10.2286 million). Apps ranked 3rd to 10th by MAU in February were: Ping An Securities (8.6405 million), CITIC Securities' Xin E Tou (7.1674 million), China Merchants Securities (7.1501 million), Guotai Junan Haitong Tongcai (6.9307 million), CITIC Jianxin's Qingting Dianjin (6.9161 million), GF Securities' Yitaojin (6.7786 million), Founder Securities' Xiaofang (6.4402 million), and China Galaxy Securities (6.4337 million).
Due to cyclical factors, MAU declined broadly across the list. Dongguan Securities, Huaxi Securities, and China Merchants Securities experienced relatively larger adjustments, with month-on-month drops exceeding 8%, making them the three institutions with the most significant declines in February. Year-on-year, only Industrial Securities (+21.12%) saw MAU growth exceed 20%, leading the industry. Changjiang Securities (+10.38%), Guosen Securities (+8.73%), Galaxy Securities (+7.72%), and Zhongtai Securities (+7.1%) also showed notable year-on-year growth.
Yang Ling noted that the month-on-month decline does not equate to weakened market participation. Despite a higher base in February 2025 with 18 trading days, February 2026 still achieved 2.62% year-on-year growth, indicating robust performance. In terms of market conditions, A-shares remained stable overall in February, with the Shanghai Composite Index rising 1.09% and the Shenzhen Component Index gaining 2.04%. Trading activity remained strong after the holiday, with turnover on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges exceeding 2.2 trillion yuan for multiple consecutive days. Margin trading and securities lending balances increased by over 20 billion yuan daily for three straight days after the holiday. This liquidity support underpinned the resilience of securities app activity. After adjusting for the difference in trading days, active user numbers still showed positive year-on-year growth, indicating that market participation fundamentals remain solid. With the spring market rally progressing and incremental funds continuing to enter, securities app activity is expected to maintain a steady upward trend.
Industrial Securities' You Li Bao app demonstrated outstanding performance in year-on-year MAU growth, leading the securities industry with a 21.12% increase. Notably, it has ranked first in the Top 20 self-operated securities app list for seven consecutive months since August last year. The company has focused on a strategy centered on youth engagement, intelligence, and scenario-based services in recent years. By building a premium content matrix, innovating special operational activities, and upgrading all-scenario smart experiences, it has strengthened refined user lifecycle management, driving sustained MAU growth.
In smart trading experience upgrades, Industrial Securities fully launched its "Know Yourself Wealth Management" service series. Its first self-developed smart trading tool, "Band Winner," was added to the homepage scenario board, allowing subscribed users to view selected and holding signals with one click. The T0 trading service incorporated non-convex strategies, and the "Hao Xing Strategy" now supports ETF targets to meet diverse investor needs. Additionally, the margin trading account's smart order function introduced "buy at price" and "sell at price" instructions to enhance trading convenience.
Monitoring services also received significant updates. Among the two new tools, "Selected Stock Analysis" enables real-time tracking during trading hours and three-second post-market reviews for visual performance analysis. The "Sector Movement" function uses algorithms to detect unusual activity signals and intelligently generates highly relevant information to assist investors in efficient decision-making.
During the Spring Festival, Industrial Securities launched the "Immediate Wealth" card collection event, conducting in-depth operations around key dates such as the fifth day of the lunar new year and the work resumption period. Activities like red envelope sharing and friend invitations helped boost user engagement. The company stated it will continue to prioritize user needs, deepen the integration of AI capabilities with investment scenarios, and enhance service accuracy and response efficiency to build a smarter, more attentive one-stop investment companion platform.
According to a monthly brokerage app observation report, 30 out of 48 monitored securities apps were updated in February 2026, with a total of 39 updates—a 5.4% increase year-on-year. Updates focused on four main dimensions. First, deepening AI applications to redesign traditional app interaction logic. For example, Western Securities' Xintianyou app released an AI version, officially launching the intelligent "AI Xiao Xi." Functions cover three core sections: the "Discover" section creates a dedicated investment Q&A window supporting full-scenario general inquiries; the "Monitoring" section captures market information and trends; the "Stock Selection" section integrates four self-developed AI stock-picking tools for an intelligent closed loop from information acquisition to strategy generation.
Second, building and improving ETF investment ecosystems, with multiple leading brokerages upgrading their ETF sections. Platforms including Huatai Securities and Guotai Junan iterated their ETF zones, adding features like enriched ETF screening dimensions, real-time data boards for "popularity rankings" and "fund flows," and new tools for intelligent ETF fixed investment planning and one-click grid trading strategy setup. Some brokers also embedded educational videos and simulated trading sandboxes to lower participation barriers, cultivate long-term investment habits, and build an integrated "select, buy, hold, learn" ETF service ecosystem.
Third, refining and smartening trading decision-making tools. Brokerages introduced customized decision-support tools tailored to different investor needs. Quantitative trading tools became more accessible, with advanced conditional order functions supporting more complex trigger logic. Smart stock diagnosis features were enhanced using large model technology to automatically scan fundamental and technical aspects, generating visual diagnostic reports and operation suggestions to help investors quickly identify risks and opportunities during trading hours.
Fourth, diversifying content and service experiences. Brokerage apps are shifting from text-based news to short videos, live streams, and interactive communities. Multiple apps optimized video stream recommendation algorithms, increased expert live stream reviews, and strengthened comment interaction mechanisms to improve user stickiness. In service experience, accessibility improvements for older users continued, with several apps launching "Elderly Mode" 2.0 versions that simplify operations and enlarge key information. Personalized homepage recommendations based on user behavior profiles have become standard, enabling precise "customized for each user" service delivery that significantly boosts retention and activity rates.