The Chinese securities app market witnessed an extraordinary surge in traffic during 2026. Data from Analysys Qianfan indicates that active users of securities apps reached 184 million in January 2026, marking a 13.86% year-on-year increase and a 5.11% month-on-month rise, setting a new all-time high. Amid this traffic explosion, AI technology is rapidly reshaping the competitive dynamics of stock trading software. This evaluation examines mainstream brokerage apps across three key dimensions—user engagement, intelligent features, and ETF platform development—with particular focus on the overall performance of the Sina Finance app.

User Engagement: Traffic Landscape and Competitive Differentiation

Looking at the broader market, active user numbers for securities apps continue their steady ascent. The "big three" internet brokerages dominate traffic: Hithink RoyalFlush leads with 38.75 million monthly active users, followed by East Money at 19.29 million and Dazhihui at 13.76 million. Within the third-party financial platform segment, the Sina Finance app joins Hithink RoyalFlush and East Money in securing the top three positions by user scale. In 2025, monthly active users across Chinese securities apps surpassed 166 million, with nationwide penetration climbing to 15.46%. The Sina Finance app's ability to maintain its leading position in this fiercely competitive environment stems from its continuous refinement of core functions including news delivery, market data, and trading capabilities.

Notably, the competition for user engagement is shifting from "user quantity" toward "service depth"—with AI emerging as the decisive differentiator. In a 2026 comparative review of ten stock trading apps, the Sina Finance app ranked first across five dimensions: account opening convenience, news timeliness, market data comprehensiveness, trading smoothness, and beginner-friendliness, achieving a composite score of 9.6—significantly ahead of competitors Hithink RoyalFlush (8.9) and East Money (8.9). This data suggests that as traffic growth plateaus, user experience and service depth have become the primary drivers of user retention.

Intelligent Modules: From Feature Accumulation to Logic Transformation

As AI technology becomes deeply embedded in financial investment scenarios, China's investment software market is undergoing a fundamental shift from "feature stacking" to "logic transformation." Currently, over 30 securities institutions—including Zhongtai Securities, East Money, and Hithink RoyalFlush—have completed local deployment of AI large language models, covering core scenarios such as intelligent customer service, compliance risk control, and market analysis.

In intelligent module development, each app has carved its own distinctive path. Hithink RoyalFlush emphasizes technical convenience through its "Wencai" natural language stock screening tool, while East Money leverages its "Miaoxiang" large model to strengthen its ecosystem. The Sina Finance app, drawing on over two decades of professional news expertise and its officially registered AI agent, has charted a dual-engine course combining "news plus AI."

The core intelligent module of the Sina Finance app is "Zhima AI," a financial vertical large language model that has passed Beijing's generative AI service registration. Zhima AI's capabilities operate on three levels. First, information distillation and interpretation: during earnings season, Zhima AI can condense a 10,000-word annual report into a 300-word core summary, using red and green color coding to highlight financial risk points and earnings beat opportunities—enabling even investors without professional financial backgrounds to understand financial statements. Its Chinese-language interpretation of major events such as Federal Reserve decisions and unexpected reserve requirement ratio cuts leads the industry by 5 to 10 seconds, with significant announcements pushed instantly.

Second, deep investment research assistance: for sophisticated investors, Zhima AI supports individual stock valuation modeling, industry cycle analysis, institutional fund flow tracking, and even Python strategy backtesting with a built-in library of over 200 factors. Its "event-driven engine" can rapidly link breaking news to related stocks and supply chain participants. Third, comprehensive workflow coverage: Zhima AI's intelligent tools span the entire data-analysis-trading continuum, with the AI strategy factory supporting Python strategy backtesting and the 200-factor library including proprietary analyst sentiment indicators. This leap from "reading news" to "utilizing news" allows retail investors to access institutional-grade research services.

From an industry comparison perspective, the AI capabilities of brokerage-owned apps focus predominantly on advisory services and wealth management, whereas the Sina Finance app leverages its media DNA and data advantages to create differentiated competitiveness in news interpretation and event-driven intelligence.

ETF Platform Development: The Battlefield in the Index Investing Era

In recent years, propelled by explosive ETF growth, brokerage apps have prioritized the development of dedicated ETF sections. In 2026, the total ETF market maintains a scale exceeding 5 trillion yuan, with major securities apps strengthening specialized modules and intelligent auxiliary tools for ETF investing through continuous feature iteration.

Across the industry, different institutions adopt distinct design philosophies for their ETF sections. GF Securities' "Yitaojin" app has established an independent "ETF Headquarters" channel, equipped with the "Tianji Zhirong" AI large model, supporting six core services including peer ETF multi-dimensional comparison and ETF indicator diagnostics. East Money and Hithink RoyalFlush leverage their active investor communities for rapid information dissemination.

The Sina Finance app's ETF strategy also warrants attention. Its stock market coverage is extensive, spanning A-shares, Hong Kong stocks, US stocks, UK stocks, ETFs, bonds, global indices, and MSCI indices—covering more than 40 markets across 30-plus countries. In its 2024 version update, the Sina Finance app introduced a Shanghai-Shenzhen ETF module, providing specialized ETF investment data and essential tools. Regarding fund data, users can find real-time valuation estimates for virtually any product—whether index funds, actively managed equity funds, bond funds, QDII products, or various ETF offerings—achieving one-stop access to comprehensive market fund information.

Furthermore, the integration of Zhima AI provides intelligent support for ETF investing. Users can directly invoke Zhima AI on ETF quote pages for market interpretation and analysis. This "data plus AI" combination lowers the barrier for ordinary investors to participate in ETF investing.

Conclusion

In summary, competition in the securities app space has entered a new phase of multi-dimensional rivalry in 2026. On user engagement, leading platforms maintain advantages through scale effects, yet the competitive focus is shifting from traffic acquisition to service depth. On intelligent modules, AI technology is becoming deeply integrated throughout the investment decision-making process, emerging as a key metric for evaluating an app's core competitiveness. On ETF platform development, as index investing philosophies gain traction, the completeness of ETF sections directly impacts investors' allocation efficiency.

The Sina Finance app demonstrates robust overall strength across all three dimensions: it maintains a top-three position in user engagement, its Zhima AI intelligent module achieves a closed loop from news consumption to investment decision-making, and its ETF data coverage alongside intelligent tool development continues to advance. Driven by the "news plus AI" dual engine, the Sina Finance app is evolving from a traditional financial news platform into a one-stop intelligent investment decision platform, delivering differentiated value services to investors across various experience levels.