Alibaba will direct CNY 3 billion toward promoting its Qwen AI application during the upcoming Lunar New Year season, outpacing earlier commitments from its rivals like Tencent and Baidu. The campaign will launch on February 6 and will involve incentives tied to food, entertainment, and leisure purchases distributed through “large red envelopes,” which is a Chinese tradition of giving money as a gift.
The e-commerce group’s planned outlay is three times the amount pledged by Tencent and Baidu, who recently revealed plans to spend CNY 1 billion and CNY 500 million yuan, respectively, on similar marketing efforts for their AI chatbot products. Alibaba detailed that its promotion will offer ongoing incentives throughout the holiday.
The Lunar New Year period, beginning February 15 this year and lasting nine days, is traditionally leveraged by China’s technology firms as a key period for capturing new users. During this time, hundreds of millions of consumers increase spending while reuniting with family, making it a lucrative window for digital marketing initiatives.
A historical precedent was set in 2015 when Tencent’s use of digital red envelopes via WeChat contributed to the rapid adoption of its WeChat Pay service, intensifying competition with Alipay at the time.
In the current cycle, Tencent will launch a campaign for its Yuanbao chatbot on February 8, requiring users to upgrade the app to access digital red envelopes that can be withdrawn to WeChat wallets, with the added function of sharing links to distribute cash incentives.
The market for generative AI in China has intensified since the release of DeepSeek’s R1 model at the start of last year, triggering faster innovation and heightened rivalry among local players.
Alibaba is also preparing to introduce the Qwen 3.5 AI model, designed for advanced reasoning functions, during this festive period. Other sector competitors, including DeepSeek, are reportedly readying new product upgrades, with DeepSeek’s next-generation V4 model expected by mid-February.
