BEIJING: Alibaba said on Monday it will spend 3 billion yuan ($431 million) to attract users to its Qwen AI app during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, intensifying competition among China’s leading tech firms.
The spending pledge, triple the amounts announced by rivals Tencent and Baidu, will begin on February 6 and include incentives for dining, drinks, entertainment, and leisure, with “large red envelopes distributed continuously,” Alibaba said in a statement.
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Tencent and Baidu last month announced they would spend 1 billion yuan and 500 million yuan, respectively, on promotions for their AI chatbot services.
Chinese tech companies have historically used the Lunar New Year festive period—when hundreds of millions travel home and spend time with family—as a prime marketing opportunity. Notably, in 2015, Tencent leveraged its WeChat app to distribute digital red envelopes, helping its WeChat Pay service gain ground against Alipay.
From clay tablets to 300,000-server “AI Super Factories”, humanity’s 5,000-year computing journey now runs trillions of operations per second.
With AI demand doubling every 3 months, efficiency is everything. Alibaba Cloud’s Lingjun unifies HPN 7.0, AI Master Scheduler, and CPFS… pic.twitter.com/ZhJLcJsDOX
— Alibaba Cloud (@alibaba_cloud) January 28, 2026
This year, the public holiday begins on February 15 and lasts nine days, longer than in most previous years, providing an extended window for user acquisition campaigns.
Tencent’s campaign will focus on its Yuanbao chatbot app, starting Sunday. Users must upgrade to the latest version to claim digital red envelopes withdrawable to WeChat wallets, and can share links with cash rewards for others to claim. Alibaba has not specified whether rewards will be cash or discount coupons redeemable on its platforms, including Taobao.
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Competition in China’s AI sector has intensified since DeepSeek launched its R1 model in January last year, prompting faster adoption and fiercer rivalry among domestic players. Other AI firms are also rolling out upgrades ahead of the holiday, with DeepSeek expected to launch its next-generation AI model V4, featuring enhanced coding capabilities, in mid-February, The Information reported.