Deep Reasons for Kuaishou's Slowing User Growth and Breakthrough Paths for Its Content Ecosystem

Based on the latest data and market analysis, I will systematically elaborate on the deep reasons for Kuaishou’s slowing user growth and the breakthrough paths for its content ecosystem.

According to Kuaishou’s Q3 2025 financial report data [1], the growth rate of the company’s user scale has slowed significantly: average daily active users (DAU) reached 416 million, up only 1.7% YoY; monthly active users (MAU) reached 731 million, up 2.2% YoY. Compared with the same period in 2024 (DAU grew by 5.4% YoY, MAU by 4.3% YoY), the growth rate has nearly halved [2].

This slowing trend is not accidental but an inevitable result of multiple factors叠加.

Kuaishou is facing a pincer attack from Douyin and WeChat Channels [1]:

Douyin continues to expand its leading edge with its global traffic + algorithm advantages, while WeChat Channels has surpassed Kuaishou in scale relying on WeChat’s social chain, and the duration gap has narrowed significantly from 84 minutes in 2024 to about 15 minutes [1].

Kuaishou’s content ecosystem faces serious structural imbalance:

• Pan-knowledge content accounts for less than 15%
  , making it difficult to attract high-net-worth users [1]
• Core content still focuses on comedy and daily life records
  , with penetration of high-value content far lower than Douyin and Xiaohongshu
• Vicious cycle of bad money driving out good money
  : Problems such as vulgarization, infringement, and falsification have erupted in concentration

In early December 2025, the internet celebrity ‘Liu Ergou’ with about 44 million followers was banned from speaking on the platform due to vulgar live broadcast content [2]. In addition, Kuaishou was ordered to pay over 120 million yuan in compensation to Youku and iQiyi in 2024 for film and television clip infringement [1].

Kuaishou E-commerce rose rapidly in its early days relying on the strong trust relationship between anchors and fans, forming a unique ‘Lao Tie Economy’ model. However, this model is becoming an invisible barrier restricting growth:

• Over-reliance on private domain traffic of top anchors
  , insufficient cultivation of mid-tier anchors
• Structural imbalance in anchor echelon (top-heavy)
  , making it difficult to diversify the content ecosystem
• Users’ shopping decisions are based on trust in specific anchors
  , not recognition of the platform’s goods and services
• Frequent controversies involving top anchors erode the trust foundation

In Q3 2025, live streaming business revenue grew by only 2.5% YoY, accounting for 26.9% of total revenue, down from 30.0%—almost becoming an important factor dragging down growth [3].

After going public in 2021, Kuaishou implemented a multi-line expansion strategy covering local life, finance, overseas expansion, etc., leading to resource dispersion [1]. Although it shifted to ‘focus on commercialization’ in 2023, organizational adjustments and resource integration are still in a painful period.

The essential dilemma facing Kuaishou is:

In Q3 2025, Kuaishou’s total revenue was 35.554 billion yuan, up 14.2% YoY [2]. However, the performance of various business segments shows significant divergence:

As the main revenue contributor (accounting for 56%), the growth rate of online marketing services has dropped significantly from 26.75% in 2023 to 14% in 2025 [2][3].

The growth rate of Kuaishou E-commerce GMV continues to decline: in 2024, the full-year GMV reached 1.39 trillion yuan, up 17.3% YoY, but compared to the growth rates of over 30% in previous years, it has significantly slowed down [3]. Although the GMV share of pan-shelf scenarios exceeds 32%, the shelf mindset is still weak—users shop more based on trust in anchors rather than recognition of the platform [4].

Instead of blindly benchmarking Douyin’s pan-entertainment ecosystem, Kuaishou should strengthen its unique advantages in the sinking market and trust e-commerce. Specific measures include:

• Improve the cultivation system for mid-tier anchors, break the reliance on top anchors
• Establish a quality certification system based on trust relationships
• Deepen the cultivation of characteristic categories such as agricultural products and handicrafts

To address the shortcoming of pan-knowledge content accounting for less than 15%, we should increase support for knowledge popularization, skill teaching, and professional field content:

• Introduce professional MCN institutions and knowledge-based KOLs
• Establish a special incentive plan for pan-knowledge content
• Cooperate with educational institutions and professional platforms to introduce high-quality content

Kuaishou Keling AI is an important strategic layout in recent years, but it has not yet formed a decisive breakthrough [3]. AI technology should be more deeply integrated into the content ecosystem:

• Intelligent content recommendation optimization
  : Improve the accuracy of user-content matching
• AI-assisted creation tools
  : Lower the threshold for high-quality content creation
• Intelligent review system
  : Strengthen content security and improve review efficiency (previous black industry attack incidents exposed shortcomings in review [3])

To address the frequent occurrence of content chaos, Kuaishou needs to systematically strengthen governance:

• Upgrade review technology
  : Introduce multi-modal AI review to deal with new types of violating content such as deepfakes
• Establish a content classification system
  : Clarify review standards and recommendation weights for different types of content
• Improve the youth mode
  : Implement regulatory requirements and enhance platform credibility

Against the backdrop of slowing growth in the advertising business, it is necessary to explore a healthier business model:

• Optimize the timing and form of ad loading to reduce the impact on user experience
• Develop diversified revenue sources such as subscription models
• Strengthen the organic integration of e-commerce and content, rather than simple traffic monetization

Kuaishou’s slowing user growth is the result of the combined effect of intensified external competition (pincer attack from Douyin and WeChat Channels) and internal strategic adjustments (resource dispersion, path dependence). Its essence is that the company has not successfully completed the transformation from a ‘traffic platform’ to an ‘ecosystem platform’.

In the short term, Kuaishou should focus on content ecosystem governance and technological capability improvement to stabilize its basic market; in the medium term, it needs to form differentiated competitiveness in areas such as pan-knowledge content and AI technology application; in the long term, it should complete the strategic transformation from a ‘grassroots culture-driven traffic platform’ to a ‘technological innovation-driven ecosystem platform’.

Against the backdrop of the short video industry entering the stock competition era, Kuaishou can only retain its market share and achieve breakthroughs in this pincer attack by identifying its own positioning and leveraging its unique advantages in the sinking market and trust e-commerce.

[1] Sina Finance - Pornographic Live Broadcast Appears Late at Night: What Other Dilemmas Does Kuaishou Face? (https://finance.sina.com.cn/stock/relnews/hk/2025-12-24/doc-inhcwnvr4607407.shtml)

[2] Sohu - Behind Kuaishou’s Black Industry Attack Incident: Shortcomings in Risk Defense System (https://m.sohu.com/a/969654646_674046)

[3] Caifuhao - Can Keling AI Save Kuaishou? Risk Control Laxity and Growth Anxiety Behind Live Streaming Losses (https://caifuhao.eastmoney.com/news/20251227131716195942540)

[4] Sina Finance - How Did Kuaishou ‘Disappear’? (https://finance.sina.com.cn/roll/2025-12-01/doc-infzhpke4254101.shtml)