Mobile video apps including Kuaishou, Douyin, Xigua and Huoshan are displayed on the screen of a 4G smartphone. [Photo provided to China Daily]

China's mobile internet users spend as much as a quarter of their daily surfing time using short video apps, a report revealed Tuesday.

The number of online short video users in China reached 873 million in 2020, the report from the National Copyright Administration says, calling short video the "third language" on mobile internet after text/image, and voice.

Last year also saw internet copyright industry cross the 1-trillion-yuan (about $157 billion) mark for the first time in China, it adds.