Ahead of Chinese New Year on February 17, has committed roughly 3 billion RMB ($431 million) to promote its Qwen AI app during the peak festive spending season.
The tech giant plans holiday incentives spanning dining, entertainment, and leisure — escalating the annual celebration into a critical battleground in China’s intensifying AI competition.
The campaign launched February 6, significantly raising the stakes against rival efforts from Tencent and Baidu, which have deployed smaller Lunar New Year promotions for their AI chatbots. Alibaba’s offer centers on continuously distributed, red-envelope-style rewards — a tactic Chinese tech firms have long deployed to drive rapid adoption during the country’s most travel- and consumption-heavy period.
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Early demand proved intense. Alibaba reported more than 10 million orders within the first nine hours, though the surge quickly strained systems. Over the weekend, Qwen temporarily halted coupon distribution due to technical overload, with the company posting a message on its official Weibo account requesting user patience. By February 9, users attempting repeat purchases received refusal notices citing excessive demand.
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In a market with hyper-efficient logistics, seamless payments and near-total platform transparency, price and heavy markdowns continue to be the primary lever of attention. Discounts, cashback and prize-style incentives aren’t promotional tactics on the margins — they are core growth mechanics designed to drive habit formation at massive scale.
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And a view from the ground level: (edit: have direct linked because it doesn’t scale in Lemmy well)