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Ann Cao

Chinese tech giants claimed a victory after a promotional giveaway campaign for their artificial intelligence services during the Lunar New Year, touting surging user numbers and the adoption of AI as part of holiday consumption.
During the period, Alibaba Group Holding’s AI app Qwen saw nearly 200 million orders placed, according to data released by the company on Monday. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
Among the users were more than four million people aged 60 and above who completed purchases within two to three exchanges with the Qwen chatbot instead of navigating multiple apps, Alibaba said.
“It is becoming a new custom during the Spring Festival for users to buy food and beverages, book flights and hotels, and purchase movie and attraction tickets through Qwen,” Alibaba said on the official WeChat account of the Qwen app.
Meituan, the on-demand delivery giant and a major rival of Alibaba, said more than 100 million people used its AI assistant Xiaotuan to plan holiday itineraries between February 12 and 22.

The extensive adoption reflects how Chinese tech giants are winning acceptance for AI-powered services, fuelled by multibillion yuan promotional campaigns amid the heated domestic race for AI commercialisation.
Alibaba’s Lunar New Year campaign, launched on February 6, aimed to distribute 3 billion yuan (US$435 million) in incentives through Qwen. Other companies like Tencent Holdings and Baidu also competed to attract users to their flagship AI apps ahead of the festival.
This year, the competition among tech companies upgraded from a red packet war to “an experiment that brings AI into people’s daily consumption”, covering eating, drinking and entertainment, said Zhuang Shuai, founder and chief analyst at market consultancy Bailian.
“The commercial value of AI agents is no longer limited to advertising and commissions, but has become the starting point for competition in next-generation infrastructure for retail and e-commerce,” Zhuang said.
Tencent said daily and monthly active users on its Yuanbao AI assistant app exceeded 50 million and 114 million, respectively, after the social media and video gaming giant gave away 1 billion yuan in digital red packets to new users.
ByteDance’s Doubao, which featured prominently during the country’s most-watched show, the Spring Festival Gala, on February 16, recorded 1.9 billion interactions that day. It helped users generate over 100 million holiday greetings, according to the company, which also owns short-video platform TikTok.
AI health app AQ, developed by Alibaba’s fintech affiliate Ant Group, emerged as an unexpected hit. The app, launched last June, surpassed 100 million users during the holiday, the company said. It attributed the surge partly to younger, tech-savvy consumers who shared the app with their families.
As of Tuesday, Doubao topped the download rankings for free apps in China’s Apple App Store, with Qwen and AQ at second and fourth, respectively. Hongguo, ByteDance’s mini-drama app, was third. AQ occupied the top spot for several consecutive days during the holiday period.


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Tech firms score win as AI assistants become part of holiday consumption – from buying food and booking travel to planning entertainment


Tech firms score win as AI assistants become part of holiday consumption – from buying food and booking travel to planning entertainment.


AI apps soar in China as Lunar New Year giveaway battle boosts user growth

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Tech firms score win as AI assistants become part of holiday consumption – from buying food and booking travel to planning entertainment

Tech firms score win as AI assistants become part of holiday consumption – from buying food and booking travel to planning entertainment